SUPERCONDUCTIVITY

Superconductivity is the quantum mechanical phenomenon in which some materials show zero
resistivity at very low temperature and in this state it behaves as perfectly diamagnetic. The
temperature at which material becomes a superconductor is called critical temperature or transition
temperature.
Mercury behaves as superconductor at 4.2 degree Kelvin.

Material TC (K)
HgBa2 Ca2Cu3O8 134
Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O 105
YBa2Cu3O7 92
Nb3Ge 23.2
Nb 9.46
Pb 7.18
Hg 4.19
Zn 0.88

Temperature dependence of resistivity of superconductor is as given below

As we decrease the temperature, resistivity of super conductor decreases, and at particular temp
called transition temperature resistivity drops abruptly to almost equal to zero and it remains zero
even up to zero degree Kelvin. Graph given below shows this in case of Mercury that was observed
by H.K.Onnes in 1911.

Meissner Effect:
In 1933 Meissner and Ochsenfeld observed important property of superconductor when low
magnetic field is applied.
In a series of experiments on superconducting cylinders in the presence of small magnetic fields they
demonstrated that as temp is lowered to Tc, the magnetic flux inside the superconductor is suddenly
and completely expelled as the specimen becomes superconducting as shown in the fig given below.
A phenomenon in which superconductor expels magnetic flux completely is known as the Meissner
Effect.
Further it is observed the effect is reversible. According to relation, B = µ. (H+M) = µ. (1+X)H
implies in superconducting state, X (susceptibility) = -1, i.e, it is perfectly diamagnetic. It can repel
magnetic field strongly.
Therefore a necessary and sufficient condition for a material to be superconductor is zero resistivity
and perfect diamagnetism.
“A superconducting material kept in a magnetic field expels the magnetic flux out of its body
when cooled below its critical temperature and hence it becomes a perfect diamagnetic. This
effect is called Meissner effect.”

Effect of Strong Magnetic Fields on Superconductor.

Shortly after the Meissner Effect it was found that superconductivity can be destroyed by the
application of a strong magnetic field even if the temperature is far below the critical temperature.
The value of minimum applied magnetic field for which Superconductor becomes normal is
called critical field. It is different for different Superconductors.

Element(Tc K) Hc in
Guass
Al (1.2) 99
Cd ( 0.5) 30
Pb (7.2) 803
Sn (3.7) 306

The critical field for a given superconductor is dependent on temperature below Tc as shown in the
graph given below.
 From the graph it is clear that critical field has a higher value for zero degree Kelvin & it decreases
with increase in temperature below Tc.
It has been found empirically that the variation is represented by

Hc(T) = Hc( 0) [1- (T/Tc)2 ]

Type I and Type II superconductors:

This classification of superconductors is made based on the critical field of a superconductor.

Type I superconductors are pure form of materials like Aluminum, Cadmium which has sharp value
of critical field which is generally low , for aluminum it is 99 gauss, and for cadmium it is 30 gauss.

Whereas type II superconductors are alloys or compounds like Nb3Sn, NbZr, which are
characterized by two critical fields Hc1 and Hc2 (Hc2 > Hc1). Up to the valve of Hc1 these
materials will be superconductors whereas from Hc1 material starts to loose its superconductivity &
at Hc2 superconductivity vanishes completely. The state of superconductors between Hc1 & Hc2 is
called mixed state or vortex state where this material is partially superconducting & partially normal.
Value of Hc2 for Type II superconductors is generally high & it is of the order of 100 times that of
Type I superconductors. Therefore Type II superconductors are preferred in the fabrication of
superconducting magnets.

BCS theory of superconductivity:

The theory of superconductivity was given by Barden, Cooper & Schrieffer in the year 1957
which is in short known as BCS theory. According to BCS theory the basic interaction responsible
for superconductivity is that two electrons attract each other via exchange of virtual phonons (they
are called so because of their very short life time) which are emitted by lattice distortion. This is
explained as under.

When an electron approaches a positive ion core, it undergoes attractive coulomb interaction thus
setting the ion in distortion which emits phonons. If a second electron comes in the vicinity of
distorted ion, the energy of the second electron is lowered by absorbing the phonons. This type of
interaction which is effective at very low temperature is called electron – lattice – electron
interaction. This interaction causes two electrons of opposite spin & equal and opposite momenta to
attract each other in the presence of phonon field and forms bound pair called as Cooper pair.

The attractive force between the two electrons in a cooper pair overcomes the coulomb repulsive
force between them. The energy of cooper pairs is less than the energy of the individual electrons.

Each Cooper pair possesses a single wave function extending over the entire super conductor.
These Cooper pairs behave as bosons with net spin zero. As we know that any number of Cooper
pairs can occupy single energy state, all Cooper pairs occupy lower energy state called
superconducting state forming a continuous chain which suffers no scattering & hence zero
resistance. The super conducting state is a more ordered state and hence it has an entropy lesser than
the normal state.
The superconducting state is at lower energy of the order of 10-4eV from the Fermi surface and is
called the energy gap ∆ of superconductor , ∆ = 3.52KBTc .The binding energy of Copper pairs is
also equal to this energy gap & when that energy is available Cooper pairs breaks leading to normal
behavior. The energy gap is maximum at 0K and is equal to zero at the critical temperature.
Josephson Effect:

When 2 superconductors are separated by a thin insulating film of thickness 10Ao, it forms a
junction called Josephson junction which facilitates tunneling of cooper pairs.

And this junction has shown some interesting effects as given below.
AC Josephson effect

When a small dc voltage is applied across the Josephson junction, it results in an oscillating current
of density
J = J1 sin (Φ + 2eV/ ħ *t) of frequency ω = 2eV/ħ.

Frequency of current is numerically given by  = 484*V GHz for V in millivolts .

The frequency falls in the micro wave range which was experimentally confirmed by measuring the
emission of microwave radiation from the junction

Application of superconductors:
SQUID
Squid is the acronym for Superconducting Quantum Interference Device. It is a very
sensitive magnetometer used to measure extremely subtle magnetic fields, based
on superconducting loops containing Josephson junctions.

DC Squid:

It consists of 2 Josephson junctions connected to form a loop of superconducting material as shown

in the figure given below. It is based on the DC Josephson effect.

When a magnetic field is applied to this superconducting circuit, it induces circulating current
which is called as SQUID current Is. This SQUID current Is is a function of magnetic flux Φ linked
with the SQUID as shown in the graph. The current Is is a result of quantum interference between
the currents coming at definite phases from Josephson junctions. This current IS is so sensitive to the
change of flux linked with the SQUID, it can be used to detect small magnetic fields like 10 -14 Tesla.
So SQUID finds application in MRI scanning to detect small magnetic fields from brain and heart of
the human body & hence to detect disorders.
 It has two Josephson junctions in parallel in a superconducting loop. In the absence of any external
magnetic field, the input current I splits into the two branches equally. If a small external magnetic
field is applied to the superconducting loop, a screening current, Is, begins to circulate the loop that
generates the magnetic field canceling the applied external flux, and creates an additional Josephson
phase which is proportional to this external magnetic flux. Hence even weak magnetic fields can be
detected

RF Squid:

It is based on the AC Josephson effect and uses only one Josephson junction. It is less sensitive
compared to DC SQUID but is cheaper and easier to manufacture in smaller quantities. Most
fundamental measurements in biomagnetism, even of extremely small signals, have been made using
RF SQUIDs. The RF SQUID is inductively coupled to a resonant tank circuit. Depending on the
external magnetic field, as the SQUID operates in the resistive mode, the effective inductance of the
tank circuit changes, thus changing the resonant frequency of the tank circuit. These frequency
measurements can be easily taken, and thus the losses which appear as the voltage across the load
resistor in the circuit are a periodic function of the applied magnetic flux with a period of Φo.

In RF SQUID, the one-junction superconducting loop is coupled to a circuit driven by a RF current

source, i.e. the loop would experience the flux produced by the current (ΦRF ). When the loop is put
in some magnetic flux Φq that we want to measure, the total external flux is Φex = Φq + ΦRF .
But as Φq is varied, the current induced in the SQUID loop is varied. Through the mutual inductance
between the SQUID loop and the RF circuit, the load on the RF circuit and thus RF voltage are
similarly varied. In this way measuring the RF voltage enables us also to measure Φq.

Three Basic Josephson-Junction Qubits

There are three basic designs for Josephson-junction qubits, depicted in Fig.1The three are known as
a charge qubit (Fig. 1a), a flux qubit (Fig. 1b), and a phase qubit (Fig.1c), respectively. Roughly
speaking, the charge qubit is a box for charge, controlled by an external voltage Vg; the flux qubit is
a loop controlled by an external magnetic flux Φext; and the phase qubit is a Josephson junction
biased by a current Ib.
Figure 1 circuit of a superconducting a) charge qubit b) flux qubit c) phase qubit

Charge Qubit
The charge qubit is also known as the Cooper-pair box (CPB). It was one of the first
superconducting qubits developed. CPB is a nanometer-scale superconducting island, which is
connected via a Josephson junction to a large electrode, called a reservoir. In quantum computing,
a charge qubit is a qubit whose basis states are charge states i.e. states which represent the presence
or absence of excess Cooper pairs in the island.The number of Cooper pairs in the box can be
changed by the voltage Vg applied to the gate coupled to the box through the gate capacitor Cg.
Because of the Josephson coupling EJ (Josephson energy) between the box and the reservoir, Cooper
pairs can tunnel into or out of the box through this junction. The charges are transferred one by one
and the normalized gate induced charge (background charge) on the superconducting island is given
by
ng=CgVg/2e
Since ng can be controlled by an external voltage, it is thus possible to tune the energy levels of the
system during an experiment. Theoretically, there are an infinite number of charge states at a certain
gate voltage corresponding to a different number of Cooper pairs in the box.

Flux Qubit

The flux qubit (also known as persistent current qubits) in its simplest form consists of micrometer
sized loops of superconducting metal that is interrupted by three Josephson junctions. Out of these
three junctions, two are identical with Josephson energies (EJ), while the third is smaller with
Josephson energy αEJ. The value of α determines the potential energy landscape of the circuit.
Usually, in the range 0.6–0.7 is used because it makes the circuit less sensitive to charge noise.
A persistent current will flow continuously when an external magnetic flux is applied. Only an
integer number of flux quanta are allowed to penetrate the superconducting ring, resulting in
clockwise or counter-clockwise mesoscopic super currents (typically 300 nA) in the loop. The two
basic states are a clockwise current in the loop ( I0> state) and an anticlockwise current ( I1>
state).When the applied flux through the loop area is close to a half integer number of flux quanta
(Φext/Φ0 ≈ 0.5), the two lowest energy eigen states of the loop will be a quantum superposition of the
clockwise and counter-clockwise currents
Phase Qubit

The phase qubit consists of single large Josephson junction (EJ/EC ≈ 106) controlled through an
applied bias current Ib. When the junction is biased close to its critical current, the washboard
potential (see fig.) accommodates only a few quantized states.

The phase qubit possesses a Josephson to charge energy ratio on the order of magnitude 106. For
phase qubits, energy levels correspond to different quantum charge oscillation amplitudes across a
Josephson junction, where charge and phase are analogous to momentum and position respectively
for a quantum harmonic oscillator. Note that in this context phase is the complex argument of the
superconducting wave function not the phase between the different states of the qubit.