Meissner effect
Efecto Meissner (expulsión del campo magnético en superconductores)
- Date
- 1933 · confidence high
- Place
- Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt, Berlin, Germany
- Credited to
- Walther Meissner; Robert Ochsenfeld
- People
- 👤 Robert Ochsenfeld1901–1993👤 Walter Meissner1882–1974
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
A superconductor expels the magnetic field from its interior when cooled below the critical temperature: it is a perfect diamagnet, not just a perfect conductor. It shows that superconductivity is a thermodynamic state and enables magnetic levitation.
Anderson and Nambu used the analogy with the Meissner effect to inspire the Higgs mechanism.
What it led to
- London theory (1935) and Ginzburg-Landau theory (1950)
- Magnetic levitation
- Classification of type I and type II superconductors
- Higgs mechanism (by analogy with the photon mass in superconductors)
Built on
- Onnes's superconductivity
- Maxwell's electrodynamics
Made possible
- Superconducting maglev trains
- Magnetic shielding