High-temperature superconductivity (cuprates)
Superconductividad de alta temperatura (cupratos)
- Date
- 1986 · confidence high
- Place
- IBM Laboratory, Rüschlikon (Zurich), Switzerland
- Credited to
- Georg Bednorz; Alex Müller; Paul Chu and Maw-Kuen Wu (YBCO, 1987)
- People
- 👤 Alexander Müller1979–👤 Chu Ching-wu1941–👤 Johannes Georg Bednorz1950–👤 Maw-Kuen Wu1949–
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
An oxide of lanthanum, barium and copper becomes superconducting at 35 K, far above the limit that BCS theory seemed to impose; in 1987 Chu's YBCO surpasses the temperature of liquid nitrogen (77 K). It opens a field that still lacks a complete theoretical explanation.
1987 Nobel Prize, awarded only a year after the discovery. Merged with "High-temperature superconductors (cuprates)" (duplicate, 23-09-2026) and with "High-temperature superconductivity in cuprate oxides" (same QID, 09-10-2026).
What it led to
- Practical superconductors cooled with liquid nitrogen
- Physics of strongly correlated electrons
- Search for room-temperature superconductors (hydrides under high pressure, 2015-)
- Superconducting cables and current limiters
- The compact magnets of new fusion reactors (SPARC)
- Urban superconducting cables and current limiters
- A theoretical problem open for four decades
Built on
- Superconductivity1911
- BCS theory of superconductivity1957
- Perovskite chemistry
- oxide ceramics
Made possible
- Iron-based superconductors above 50 K2008
- Superconductivity in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene2018
- High-temperature superconducting cables
- Superconducting microwave filters
- YBCO magnets for fusion (SPARC)
- compact fusion magnets
- superconducting maglev trains
- superconducting cables