Superconductivity
Superconductividad
- Date
- 1911 · confidence high
- Place
- University of Leiden, Netherlands
- Credited to
- Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
- People
- 👤 Heike Kamerlingh Onnes1853–1926
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Three years after liquefying helium, Onnes observes that the electrical resistance of mercury abruptly disappears at 4.2 K. The first macroscopic quantum phenomenon, unexplained for 46 years.
The student Gilles Holst carried out the measurements. Nobel Prize for Onnes in 1913.
What it led to
- BCS theory (1957)
- Superconducting magnets (magnetic resonance imaging, LHC)
- Josephson effect and SQUID
- High-temperature superconductors
Built on
- Absolute temperature scale (Kelvin)1848
- Liquefaction of helium (Onnes, 1908)
- Dewar's cryogenics
- Kelvin's absolute scale
Made possible
- Cooper pair1956
- High-field superconducting magnet (Nb3Sn)1961
- Tokamak magnetic confinement fusion1958-1968
- High-temperature superconductivity (cuprates)1986
- Superconducting maglev (SCMaglev)1997 / 2015
- Superconducting qubit1999
- Commercial maglev train (Shanghai Transrapid)2004
- ITER international fusion experiment2007-2025
- MRI magnets
- Accelerators such as the LHC
- SQUIDs and ultrasensitive magnetometers
- Magnetic levitation trains