Superconductors

For pure metals the resistivity decreases with decrease in temperature and reaches zero at 0K. Due
to presence of impurities, the resistivity of a metal never reach zero, but a residual value always
remains. In case of superconductors, the resistivity drops suddenly to zero below a particular
temperature.
In case of ordinary conductors, when current flows through it, electrons get scattered by the ions (or
more correctly by phonons which are the quanta of lattice vibration), which is the reason for
resistance. This scattering actually produces heat energy through Jouls heating thus causing lose of
some amount of energy. Now superconductors are of special class as they donot experience Joule
heating and no energy is lost due to this friction or scattering.

BCS Theory of superconductors

In normal case two electrons in free space will be repelled by each other due to coulomb interaction
between them. But in presence of an ion which is positive charged this interaction gets modified
such that these two electrons actually form a pair called Cooper pairs. So two electrons which
actually repel from eah other become bound to form a pair. This pairs of electrons can move
through the conductors without being scattered by ions/phonons thus reducing the resistance and
allied Joule heating. But formation and disruption of Cooper pair are subjected to temperature. In
lower temperature lattice vibrations are not strong enough to break the coherence of pair and
convert them to individual normal electrons. But in high temperature their disruption happens more
prominently that material doesnot exhibit superconductivity at high temperature. That is why
superconducting state occur only below a certain critical temperature.

Effects of Magnetic field and Meissner effect

T 2
H c =H 0 [1−( )]
Tc
A superconducting material excludes magnetic flux or it act as a diamagnetic material. When a
superconducting material is cooled belwo transition temperature and a weak filed is applied, surface
current generates on the specimen and it cancels the filed inside the specimen. This is called
Meissner effect. When you raise the field beyon the critical field and material is still in a
temperature below the crititical value there are two competing effects (1) normal state has higher
free enrgy than superconducting state below Tc. (2) This increase is more than the gain acheived by
allowing the flux to reach inside due to cancellation of surface currents.
Why this cancellation happens and what is the quantification of energy gain by that?

Critical current
Magnetic field can produce phase transformation in a superconductor to normal one. This field can
also be produced by the current carried by conductor itself. This is called Silsbee's rule.
I c =2 π r ( H c −2H)

Entropy
Superconducting state is found to be ordered than normal state or in other words the entropy
reduced when material undergoes a phase transition from normal to superconducting state.
What type of phase transition is this and what is the order parameter?

Specific heat
In case of a normal metal the specific heat is given by equation Cnormal =A elec T + B phon T 3 Only the
electronic part that means the first term is effected by superconducting transformation. Modified
 ( −Δ )
KBT
electronic specific heat is given as C elec Spec heat =Ae

Isotope effect
β
T c M =constant ; for most caseβ=0.5 This isotope effect gives a direct evidence for the active
role of phonons or ions in superconducting phenomenon. Superconducting state is achieved through
electron-phonon coupling (according to BCS theory). Now between isotopes the ionic mass varies
in turn affecting the copuling and thus changing the crititical temperature.

London Penetration depth

λ0
H=H 0 exp(−x /λ) λ=

√ 1−[
T 4
Tc
]

Josephson Effect
A DC voltage V applied across a josephson junction with a phase difference Φ0. If I0 and K are the
constants depending on the properties of junction, the current flowing through it has form
2eVt
I 0 sin [ +Φ 0 ]
ℏ