High Temperature Superconductivity - Assignment Example

Background (major concepts and relevant example) on the topic Superconductors refer to the materials that are capable of conducting electricity without any resistance. This only happens under low temperature (David & William, 19). The high temperature superconductors refer to all the materials that are made up of compounds or elements which are superconducting and transition temperatures but above 30k or -243.20c. Between the year 1960 and 1980, the transitional temperature was believed to be 30k. It was in the year 1986 that the first high temperature superconductor was discovered by Johannes Bednorz and Karl Muller who through that won a Nobel peace price in physics which were made of copper oxide. The other name for the high temperature superconductor is cuprate superconductor. There are two main definitions of high temperature with reference to superconductivity (Frank &Charles, 49). The first definition refers to a temperature that is above 30k. The second definition refers to the existence of transitional temperature, which is a large fraction of Fermi temperature rather than for the conventional superconductors like lead and mercury elements. The label for the high temperature T-c is reversed by some authors especially for the reference of elements with a boiling point of (-1960c or 77k that is greater than liquid nitrogen. The benefits of the technological application are from both critical high temperatures which are the temperature above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen and with a higher critical field of magnetic a condition at which the superconductors are destroyed. In most cases, the high field of magnetism is valuable than the transitional temperature (Jeffrey & Allen, 190). There are a number of characteristics which have been discovered with reference to superconductors. Cuprate superconductors have a slight difference from other conventional superconductors. Elements of lead and mercury are the main examples (Vitaliĭ &David, 78). Generally the cuprate superconductors are referred to as the two dimension quasi materials and have superconducting properties which is determined by the movement of the weak electrons within the coupled copper oxide compounds through very weak bonds. The stability of the structures in the compound is maintained by the neighboring ions of barium, strontium and lanthanum. They dope holes or electrons on the layers of copper-oxide. Undopes mother compounds are the most insulators which contains antiferromaganet long-range order and at a low temperature range. The cuprate have a structure of a perovskite. Specific questions to be addressed The emergence of superconductor from the conductors has led to many researches all in an effort to determine the mechanism behind the availability of high temperature superconductors. Some of the questions of which some are yet to be answered in the near future are as follows What is the mechanism behind the functioning of high temperature superconductors? What is the role of magnetism in the functioning of high temperature super conductors? Why are some compounds prone to the property of superconductivity while others are not? How doe the cuprate, iron-tellium-selenium and copper-oxide superconductors work? Key concept and the Limitations or problems of existing research For over twenty years, only a few superconductors have worked above the temperatures of a liquid-helium of which most were based on copper. The latest scientists have discovered that among the first superconductors of high temperature are based on iron material. With the superconductors, the flow of electric current happens without any resistance (John & James 129). In the past years, the whole process was though to occur at the temperature near absolute zero. The coldness tames the electron vibration ensuring the electrons are in such a way that they can overcome their own natural repulsion for each other. It is the vibrations that are altered which causes those electrons to pair and then move freely in the lattice of atomic attraction. It was until the year 1986 that the scientist discovered new class of the superconductors which operates very well at a temperature of above absolute zero up to a temperature that is above -1130c or 160k. The materials which are dubbed cuprate consist of layers of copper oxide which are sandwiched in between other substances (René Flükiger & Klose 100). The high temperature and cuprates structures interface with the mechanisms which drives conventional superconductors a factor that has driven the physicists to seek for the explanation. It is as a result of serendipitous discovery that investigators are expanding their ideas to understand more about the superconductors. Some scientist were in search for materials that will improve the performance of the superconductors especially the transparent oxide form of semiconductors and landed to the discovery of iron based form of high temperature superconductors (Vadim & paulmuller 108). The material that is crystalline called LaOFeAs, was stuck in the layers of arsenic and iron whereby the electrons flow between oxygen and lanthanum. This leads to a replacement of about 11% of atoms of oxygen with fluorine form of improved compounds. The resultant compound was a superconductor at the temperature of 26k. Other research have proved that replacing lanthanum in the compound LaOFeAs by some very rare earth elements like samarium, cerium, praseodymium and neodymium has led to the discovery of a superconductor that is functional at the temperature of 52k (Nikolai 68). The compounds that are iron layers of high temperature superconductor have surprised the investigators due to the fact that they expected the iron magnetism effect would affect the pairing of the ions. The pairing of the ions is aided by the spin fluctuations which cause disturbances in the magnetic field creating a superconductor. It is this kind of superconductor that has enabled the scientist to research further for the purpose of understanding how the higher temperature iron based kind of semiconductors work (Narlikar 180). This discovery has motivated the scientist go undertake other researched to find out whether there are other high temperature semiconductor which have not yet been found at the moment. A research report on the investigations of a higher temperature conductor called the oxypnictides was done. It was discovered that these materials show similar characteristic with the copper-oxide conductors which have high temperature range especially because both of them emergences from a kind of magnetic state (Kevin, 70). Their result was very helpful in helping them understand the mechanisms that are behind the functioning of high temperature superconductors. Recently the discovery of the new type of superconductors is made up of iron and arsenic instead on oxygen and copper. The two types of conductors have also opened a room for investigation for the scientist to be able to explain the physics that underlies their functioning. This will enable the scientist to manufacture new superconductors as well but of higher temperature the current ones (John & James 119). A wire that is a superconductor is capable of holding a higher density of current as compared to the current wires made up of copper material which losses energy very easily. This explains why the superconductors are used for power transmission for the stations up to the cities. The superconducting wire in a loop enables the flow of current continuously producing great powerful electromagnets. These magnets are also used in scanners of MRI used for floating of maglev train as well as steering the beam of protons especially for the large Hadrons Collider at the CERN. The application of the superconductors is in existence in electronic devices that are ultrafast. They are also in the quantum computing (John & James 59). Basically the secret behind the superconductivity can be easily unlocked through the study of materials that are iron based. This is a research that is currently ongoing at the institute of standard and technology. So far it has been discovered that there could be a more complicated relationship existing between the superconductivity and magnetism (Kumuda, 58). This relationship is also likely to bring forth a new set of superconductors. It is obvious that as the temperatures approaches absolute zero, the materials automatically become conductors carrying electric current without any resistance (Nikolay, 199). In low temperature situation, the superconductors apply magnetism to conduct electrical current. The scientists have also discovered high temperature superconductors which are well able to function at a temperature that is above 30 degrees from the absolute zero. Currently the copper oxide materials are conductors of electricity in liquid nitrogen. This kind of application has enabled the development of high-speed kind of trains, imagers of magnetic resonance and highly sensitive detectors of astronomic (Richard 90).. In the year 2008, there was a discovery of iron based kind of HTc superconductors in Japan. They were easily shaped into wires and so greatly commercialized as compared o the copper oxide. This has provided the scientist with a way of getting into deeper research in search of the theory behind HTc superconductivity (Jeffrey & Allen 200). The scientist in the college used beams of the neutrons and peek the atomic structure of the superconductor to resemble the copper oxide materials. This is especially in the addition of other type of elements to the superconductors influencing their magnetic properties as well as superconductivity. The iron based kind of conductors was tested as well but without doping it. The results were such that under temperatures that are moderate the volume was compressed at around 5%. But it became a superconductor in the absence of magnetism (Kumuda, 88). The behaviour of the iron based materials in the absence of magnetism but under pressure has opened a new possibility of the existence of other superconductors which have not yet been discovered other than the copper oxides. Another research has lead to the discovery of iron based kind of superconductors with different forms of chemical properties. According to the researcher, once more they confirmed that superconductivity property is produced through the process of doping of the parent compounds. This involves the introduction of new atoms in the existing compound (John, 98). This then produced a strong correlation between the material’s conductivity and magnetism. A researcher by the name Dimitry Argyriou together with his collogue produced iron-tellium-selenium kind of crystals as well as determined what their composition chemically were by the use of X-rays together with the neutron diffraction (Richard 90). They determined the measurement of magnetic signals in those crystals through the process of neutron scattering. The discovery was a different magnetic order in the symmetry as compared to the compounds with iron as the parent compound like iron-arsenic. This difference did not have any effect in the conductivity property of the compound. His entire discovery proved the possibility of producing superconductor at a very high temperature. Magnetism has been proved beyond doubts to be the governing property behind superconductors that are made up of iron. This was as a result of the discovery of the high temperature superconductors (Christopher 180). A team of research scientist working together has come up with an explanation. Magnetism is one of the main factors that govern the iron pnictides physical properties. Theses are particles belonging to a group of materials able to conduct electric current without any resistance at a temperature of 56k or -217oc. The iron pnictides consists of compounds that are spaced by the layers of iron which are further sandwiched between those particles. That temperature of -217 may seem too low but these set of particles are the first compounds to be superconductors at such a high temperature range followed by the copper based compounds (Gerald, 78). The evidence that was produced by the team proved that ignoring the factor of magnetism then iron pnictides inner theoretical calculations of its structure does not align with the lab calculations or measurements. This proved that magnetism is a key factor in superconductivity. An evidence based research shows that ignoring the effect of magnetism the distance that is calculated between all the layers of iron that distance that has been measured thoroughly is usually wrong (Books, 20). Magnetism controls some basic aspects in iron pnictides with reference to the position of atoms. The determination of the mechanism that is behind the superconductivity property of the iron pnictides is has not been achieved yet it is paramount in the understanding the mechanism that is behind the phenomena of superconductivity under high temperatures. Scientist in the University of Oxford undertook an experiment that involved neutrons in probing magnetic glue which was thought to be responsible for the production of superconductors at high temperatures (Ajay, 122). Some magnetic stripes moments were identified as well as charge in the form of an hourglass strange magnetic spectrum.tje current research to confirm the origin of the high temperature superconductors was done using the copper oxide compounds which are basically larger compounds in nature and exhibit large motions of the atomic moments of magnetism. It is the fluctuation of these moments of magnetism that creates a force of attraction responsible to bind the electrons into pairs allowing them to freely move round resulting to the superconductivity effect (John, 58). Researches have been done after that to determine what causes the appearance of the unusual hourglass that occurs in the moments of fluctuation in the magnetic spectrum. It was thought that the cause is due to alternating patterns due to the spinning and also charge stripes within the layer of the atoms (American Physical society, 200). This link was not well proved due to the appearance of weak magnetic spectrum caused by the effect of superconductivity. Work Cited Ajay, Sakena. High-temperature superconductors. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2009 American Physical society. High-temperature superconductivity: reprints from Physical review letters and Physical review B : January-June 1987, Volume 1 Books, LLC. Superconductors: Lead, Unconventional Superconductor, Magnesium Diboride. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2010 . Christopher Lampton. Superconductors. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999 David, Tunstall & William, Barford. High temperature superconductivity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Frank Owens &Charles Poole. The new superconductors. London: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1996. Gerald, Burns. High-temperature superconductivity: an introduction. Denver: Rowman & Littlefield, 1992. Jeffrey, Lynn & Allen Phillip. High temperature conductivity. New York: NYU Press, 2009. John Robert & James Brooks. Handbook of high-temperature superconductivity: theory and experiment. California: ABC-CLIO, 2007. John, Boyd. The physics of superconductors. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2004. John, Evetts. High-temperature superconductivity : proceedings of LT-19 satellite conference Michigan: A. Hilger.1991. Kevin, Bedell. High temperature superconductivity: the Los Alamos Symposium--1989 : proceedings. London: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., Advanced Book Program, 1990. Kumuda, George. Superconductors‎. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2002 Narlikar violet. Studies in high temperature superconductors. New York: NYU Press, 2006. Nikolay Plakida. High-Temperature Cuprate Superconductors: Experiment, Theory, and Applications. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2010. Nikolai,Plakida. High-temperature superconductivity: experiement and theory. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1995 Vadim, shrimidt & paulmuller. The physics of superconductors: introduction to fundamentals and applications. Florence, KY: Cengage Learning, 1997. René Flükiger, W. Klose. Superconductors: transition temperatures and characterization of elements . New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1993 Richard Miller. Superconductors: electronics and computer applications. London: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1990 Vitaliĭ, Ginzburg & David ,Abramovich Kirzhnit︠s︡. High-temperature superconductivity. Calofonia: Consultants Bureau, 2002 Read More