Super Conductors Essay

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Introduction A superconductor is a special piece of material that has the ability to conduct electrons without resistance and conduction not being affected by the interior magnetic field, at low temperatures. Superconductors can conduct electricity without loss of any energy. Usually current flow through conductors loses energy via heat or light. When current is flowed through a conducting metal, the energy levels of outer electrons start to vibrate.1 This vibrating causes the conductor to heat up. The increase of heat causes more vibration. When the electrons begin to move, they collide with impurities in the lattice.3 When the electrons collide into these impurities they deflect in random direction causing a loss of energy in the form of heat. However superconductors and their electron behavior act very different. The environment is very similar. When electrons hit an impurity it doesn’t fly off in a random direction. Electrons move freely through the complex lattice. Where there are no collisions, no friction is created; this allows them to transmit a current with no loss in current or energy.5 As the current is increase, the vibration of electrons also increase which increases the heat. However if the environmental temperature is controlled, and is made colder there is less vibration. With few atomic vibrations, it was first predicted that the electrons would pass more easily, however this is all dependent on temperature, and doesn’t fully explain superconductivity.2 The advancement in understanding superconductivity was in the late 1950’s by three physicists; John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John Schrieffer, through their Theories of Superconductivity, known as the BCS Theory. The BCS theory explains superconductivity at temperatures close to absolute zero. It was realized that atomic vibrations were responsible for unifying the entire current. Forcing electrons

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