PHY972/905: Superfluidity and Superconductivity
Fall 2007

Lectures - Phil Duxbury Tuesday, Thursday: 12:00-1:20pm: BPS4270

Recommended reading
- M. Tinkham, ``Introduction to Superconductivity"
- D.R. Tilley and J. Tilley, `` Superfluidity and superconductivity"
- Literature reviews as noted in class

Topics list
Condensates, superfluids and superconductors. Helium 4, Bose gas condensates, Two fluid model, s-wave superconductors, BCS theory, London theory-electrodynamics of charged superfluids, vortices and vortex states, Josephson effects and superconducting devices, Ginzburg-Landau theory, Helium 3 and p-wave superconductors, cuprates and d-wave superconductors.

Course assessment
(i) Attendence and participation is class (20%).
(ii) Problem sets every two weeks(40%).
(iii) Project report and presentation by students (about 10 pages/20min presentation) at the end of the semester(40%).

Major events - we will cover most of these topics.

  • 1907-11 - Kamerlingh-Onnes Liquifies 4He. Finds superconductivity in Mercury.
  • 1924 - Bose/Einstein develop theory of ideal Bose condensate.
  • 1933 - Meissner and Oschenfeld demonstrate flux expulsion (Meissner effect)
  • 1935 - London brothers introduce the London equation for Meissner effect
  • 1937 - Kapitza, and Allon and Misener find zero viscosity in Helium 4.
  • 1938 - London suggests superfluid Helium 4 is a condensate.
  • 1950 - Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity
  • 1956 - Abrikosov predicts flux lattice in type II superconductors using GL theory.
  • 1957 - Bardeen/Cooper/Schrieffer(BCS) theory of s-wave superconductors.
  • 1961 - Two groups demonstrate flux quantization in superconductors.
  • 1962 - Josephson predicts his DC and AC effects.
  • 1961/2 - Giaever/Megerle measure Josephson effect in tunnel junctions.
  • 1960's,1970's - Superconducting magnets e.g. for MRI and accelerators.
  • 1972 - Lee/Richardson/Osheroff demonstrate superfluidity in 3He.
  • 1987 - Bednorz/Muller find superconductivity in La2-xSrxO4.
  • 1995 - Cornell/Wieman find Bose condensation of 87Rb gas in atom trap.
  • 1995-1997 - Demonstration that high Tc cuprates are d-wave superconductors.
  • 1998 - Greytak/Kleppner achieve condensation in spin polarized Hydrogen.
  • 2001 - Akimitsu et al. find superconductivity in MgB2(39K).