The road to superconducting materials

JAN 01, 1981

The discovery of type II superconductors, which retain their properties even at high fields and high current densities, required clearing away erroneous ideas and preconceptions as well as a good measure of luck.

DOI: 10.1063/1.2889964

John K. Hulm

J. Eugene Kunzler

Bernd T. Matthias

In the golden research period immediately following World War II, the three of us took up research work in cryogenics and superconductivity. We were fortunate enough to make some discoveries in superconducting materials that laid the groundwork for new avenues of technological development. In this article, we present our recollections of the history of these discoveries and some of the human events surrounding them. As is well known, scientific progress rarely takes the logical paths usually portrayed in scientific journals; much of it begins with chance encounters or random events. We shall mention a few of the unusual factors that affected our work and some of the people who influenced our thinking.

References

1. Superconducting research before 1952: D. Shoenberg, Superconductivity, Cambridge U. P. (1952), 2nd edition.
2. Electron‐phonon motion: J. R. Schrieffer, Theory of Superconductivity, Benjamin, New York (1964).
3. Type‐II behavior: R. G. De Gennes, Superconductivity of Metals and Alloys, Benjamin, N. Y. (1966).
4. Proc. Int. Conf. on the Science of Superconductivity, D. Douglass, Jr, R. W. Schmitt, eds., Rev. Mod. Phys. 36, 1 (1964).https://doi.org/RMPHAT
5. Critical temperatures of transition‐metal materials: Superconductivity in d‐ and f‐ band materials, Rochester 1971,
D. H. Douglass, ed., AIP Conf. Proc. no. 4 (1972).
6. A15 compounds: Conf. Proc. of Low Temperature Physics Conference LT 13, K. D. Timmerhans, W. J. O’Sullivan, E. F. Hammel, eds, Plenum, New York (1974), vol II page 3.
7. Hc2, Tc and technical materials: Metallurgy of Superconducting Materials, T. Luhman, D. Dew‐Hughes, eds., Academic, New York (1979).
8. High‐field, high‐current superconductors: J. K. Hulm, B. T. Matthias, Science 208, 881 (1980).https://doi.org/SCIEAS
9. Research Philosophy: A. B. Pippard, PHYSICS TODAY November 1961, page 38.

More about the Authors

John K. Hulm. Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Pittsburgh.

J. Eugene Kunzler. Electronic Materials, Processes and Devices Laboratory, Bell Labs.

Bernd T. Matthias. University of California, San Diego.