Ninth Sir Nevill Mott Lecture

Superconductivity: History and Current Status

Alexei A Abrikosov

(Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, USA)

14.30, Wednesday 7 May 2003 in T003 (Wolfson Building)

Hosted by Department of Physics, Loughborough University

A brief account is given of the developments in superconductivity since its discovery in 1911. Relevant theoretical and experimental advances are described including the Peierls and the London theory. Experimental entities such as the critical temperature, critical magnetic field, Meissner effect and penetration depth of an external magnetic field into a superconductor are examined. Important experimental progress has been made with the discovery of superfluidity, the isotope effect and the discovery of the phonon mediated attraction between electrons.

These developments have led to the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of superconductivity with the Ginsburg-Landau theory as the limiting case. Since then the applications of superconductors, in particular with the Josephson effect in SQUIDs, and more recently with the advances in high temperature superconductivity, have made significant inroads towards applications in industry and research. This progress is briefly reviewed.

Prof. Abrikosov has worked in the area of superconductivity for almost 50 years. During this time he has been at the forefront of research in this field and has made significant contributions including the prediction of the existence of type-II superconductors and also of magnetic flux line lattices.

This review is a personal account of the historic developments in this field of physics from a prominent physicist who has, for the major part of his academic career, worked in the former Soviet Union. This talk offers a unique opportunity to glimpse at the life and the work of a very prominent scientist with a distinctive perspective in a very active area of solid state physics.

The Sir Nevill Mott lecture series at Loughborough was inaugurated by Sir Nevill Mott in 1995. Previous lectures

The tenth Sir Nevill Mott lecture will be given by Prof Arndt Simon of the Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Stuttgart, in May 2004. More details later.

Report and photos

For further information contact

Dr Klaus Neumann
(01509) 223310
Department of Physics
Loughborough University
Loughborough, Leics LE11 3TU

4 December, 2005