Superconductivity: New materials, New Temperatures |
Friday, February 9, 2001, 7:00 p.m. Pyle Adult Center, Tempe, AZ
Superconductivity is the phenomenon of transmission of electric power with no resistance in the conductor. This means electrical generating plants could be located thousands of miles away, at the source of inexpensive generating areas (at waterfalls in Canada, for example) and shipped to high-use areas with no loss in power during transmission. (Our current power grid loses a sizeable fraction of electric power with every 100 miles of transmission!) Superconductivity occurs at extremely low temperatures (that of liquid air) and thus has not been practical for everyday use.
Superconductivity at room temperature – “high-temperature superconductivity” — has been a Holy Grail for years in the physics community. Several researchers (beginning in 1975 at DuPont) have gradually worked toward room temperature superconductivity, with measurable, predictable, and repeatable results. Most notably, two Swiss physicists working for IBM (Bednorz and Mullen) achieved superconductivity at temperatures about half that of liquid air in 1986.
Since then, various theoretical physicists have claimed to have predicted new superconducting materials, but so far, nothing successful has come out of any lab.
Much experimentation and theory has been aimed at “cuprate-planes” found in most high-temperature superconductors, and according to our speaker for February, a satisfactory theory of high-temperature superconductivity must be formulated in order to predict new materials.
Professor of Physics John Dow (ASU) will be presenting a lucid explanation of superconductivity and the search for new superconducting materials. Please join us at 7:00 p.m. at the Pyle Adult Center, southeast corner of Rural and Southern, for this fascinating presentation.