Milestone-Nomination:DISCOVERY OF SUPERCONDUCTIVITY 1911

Docket Number: 2010-05 Proposal Link: https://ethw.org/Milestone-Proposal:DISCOVERY_OF_SUPERCONDUCTIVITY_1911

In the space below the line, please enter your proposed citation in English, with title and text. Text absolutely limited to 70 words; 60 is preferable for aesthetic reasons. NOTE: The IEEE History Committee shall have final determination on the wording of the citation

DISCOVERY OF SUPERCONDUCTIVITY   1911

On 8 April 1911, in this building which then housed the Physical Laboratory of Leiden University, Professor Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and his collaborators, Cornelis Dorsman, Gerrit Jan Flim, and Gilles Holst discovered “supraconductivity” when they observed that the resistance of “mercury (was) practically zero" as its temperature was lowered to 3 Kelvin.   Today, superconductivity enables many electrical technologies including Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and High-Energy Physics Particle Accelerators.

(NOTE:  The words “mercury practically zero” were the words that Prof. H. Kamerlingh Onnes used in his notebook to record the first observation of “supraconductivity” as he initially called this phenomena.   It is proposed that these words be used in the citation on the plaque to preserver history in the words used at the time of the event.)

(NOTE:  It is proposed that the IEEE Milestone Plaque be mounted on the wall of the entrance hall to the Kamerlingh Onnes Building at Leiden University in Leiden, The Netherlands, which, in 1911, housed the Physical Laboratory where the phenomena of superconductivity was discovered.  It is also proposed that the dedication be held on 8 April 2011, the exact 100th anniversary of the discovery.)

The initial reports on the research on superconductivity at the University of Leiden by Prof. H. Kamerlingh Onnes and colleagues originally appears (in English) in the   “Communications of the Physical Laboratory of the University of Leiden” as follows:

Commun. no.120b (28 Apr. 1911) ""Further experiments with liquid helium:   The resistance of pure mercury at helium temperatures".

Commun. no.122b (27 May 1911) ""Further experiments with liquid helium: The disappearance of the resistance of mercury".

Commun. No. 123  (24 June 1911) ""Further experiments with liquid helium: A helium cryostat. Remarks on the preceding Communication".

Commun. no. 124   (25 Nov. 1911) ""Further experiments with liquid helium:  On the sudden change in the rate at which the resistance of mercury disappears".

Commun.  no. l33a,b,c   (22 Febr. 1913) ""Further experiments with liquidhelium:  The potential difference necessary for the electric current through mercury below 4.19 K".

Commun.  no.133d  (31 May 1913) ""Further experiments with liquid helium:  The sudden disappearance of the ordinary resistance of tin, and the supraconductive state of lead".

Commun.   no.139f  (28 Febr. 1914) ""Further experiments with liquid helium:  The Appearance of resistance in supraconductors, which are brought into a magnetic field, at a threshold value of the field".

Commun.  no.140b  (28 Febr. 1914) / Commun. no. 140c  (30 May 1914) ""Further experiments with liquid helium:  The imitation of an Ampere molecular current or of a permanent magnet by means of a supraconductor".

Commun.  no.14lb  (27 June 1914) ""Further experiments with liquid helium:  The persistence of currents without electromotive force in supraconducting circuits".

Suppl., no.34b   (Sept.-Oct. 1913) "Report on researches made in the Leiden cryogenic laboratory between the second and third international congress of refrigeration". (Washington-Chicago 1913)

                              par. 4 "Maximum density of liquid helium".

                             par. 5 "Superconductors".

Suppl. no.35 (Dec. 1913) "Investigations into the properties of substances at low temperature physics, which led, amongst other things, the preparation of liquid helium" (Nobel lecture)

Selected references on the discovery, history, theory and applications of superconductivity written for the student and interested members of the public, which do not require specific technical background (except as noted):

R. de Bruyn Oubuter, “Heike Kamerlingh Onnes’ Discovery of Superconductivity”, Scientific America.  vol. 276, pp 96    (1997)   This article describes the early research done at  University of Leiden on the liquefaction of helium and the discovery of superconductivity.

P. H. Kes and D. van Delft,  ‘Mercury practically zero’: the discovery of superconductivity”,  Physics Today, to be published       This article recounts some unknown , until now,  details about the          discovery of superconductivity taken from Prof. Kamerlingh Onnes’s notebooks, which were only recently (2010)  found in the Kamerlingh Onnes archives.

J. de Nobel, ‘The Discovery of Superconductivity’, Physics Today, September 1996, pages  40-42.

D. van Delft, ‘Little cup of helium, big science’, Physics Today, March 2008, 36-42.

S. Blundell, “SUPERCONDUCTIVITY:  A Very Short Introduction”, (Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York) 2009

K. Mendelsohn,  “The Quest for Absolute Zero: The Meaning of Low Temperature Research”,   (Taylor and Francis)  1977

R. Simon and A. Smith ,  “Superconductors: Conquering Technology's New Frontier”,  (Plenum,  1988).

http://www.aip.org/history/mod/superconductivity/

An Internet site sponsored by the American Institute of Physics contains explanations, narratives and video clips dealing with superconductivity.   Also contains links to many books and other websites dealing with superconductivity.

http://www.superconductors.org/     This web site contains a great deal of information on superconductivity, its history, explanation of various aspects of superconductivity, animations, links to research organizations involved in superconductive research, books etc..

http://www.aip.org/history/mod/superconductivity/            An Internet site sponsored by the American Institute of Physics contains explanations, narratives and video clips dealing with superconductivity and contains links to many books and other websites dealing with superconductivity.  Most of these links are suitable for student and interested members of the public,  although some may require an appreciation of quantum mechanics.

http://www.absolutezerocampaign.org/             “Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold” ” was a two-part Public Broadcasting System ({BS) (USA) television special that was broadcast in 2007, which showed how civilization has been affected by the mastery of cold.  Contains a section on superconductivity and links to other websites dealing with low temperatures phenomena and superconductivity.

http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk/ascg/lectures/         This web site describes a series of video lectures on all aspects of Superconductivity, which was prepared over several years in celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the discovery of superconductivity.  This project, which features contributions from leading world experts in academia and industry, was organized and led by Dr Bartek Glowacki of the University of Cambridge (UK).  These video lectures cover fundamentals, materials, and electronic and large-scale applications of superconductivity.  Most of the lectures are suitable for students and interested members of the public while some require knowledge of quantum mechanics to be fully appreciated.   These  “Lectures on Superconductivity” are currently available free of charge online at this URL, and, eventually, will be available in DVD format

Selected references on the discovery, science and technology of superconductivity written for historians and scholars with some technical background:

R. de Rruyn Ouboter    “ Superconductivity:  Discoveries  During  the Early Years of Low Temperature Research at Leiden” ,    IEEE Trans MAGNETICS,  vol. MAG-23,  no. 2, pp. 355- 370  (March 1987)  

 This article is  slightly more detailed and technical then the one cited above by de Bruyn Oubuter  and relies heavily on various communications from the Communications from the Physical Laboratory of the University of Leiden, some of which are enumerated above.

P. F. Dahl,  “SUPERCONDUCTIVITY: Its Historical Roots and Developments form Mercury to the Ceramic Oxides” (American Institute for Physics, New York) 1992

J. Matricon and G. Waysand,  “The COLD WARS: The Story of Superconductivity”,  (Rutgers University Press,  New Brunswick, NJ  1994)

T. P. Sheahen,  “Introduction to High-Temperature Superconductivity”,  (Plenum Press, New York and London, 1994)

R. M. Hazen,  The Breakthrough: The Race for the Superconductor”, (Simon & Schuster; New York; First edition,  1988)

B. Schechter,   The Path of No Resistance:   The Story of the Revolution in Superconductivity”,  (Touchstone Publishing, New York  1989)

E. A. Lynton ,  Superconductivity,   London, Methuen & Co., Ltd. 196

L. Hoddeson,  E. Braun,  J. Teichamn and S. Weart,  “Out of the Crystal Maze – Chapters from the History of Solid State Physics” (Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford,  1992),  See Chapter 8 – Collective  Phenomena  pp 489-616

V. D. Hunt,   “Superconductivity Sourcebook”, (Wiley Interscience Publication, New York,  1989)

M. Tinkham,  “Introduction to Superconductivity” (Dover Publications, 2nd Ed.) 2004

T. Van Duzer,  and C. W. Turner,  “Principles of Superconductive Devices and Circuits”. London, Arnold, 1981.

T. P. Orlando  and K. A. Delin,  “Foundations of Applied Superconductivity”  (Prentice-Hall,  Upper Saddle River, NJ,  1991)

A. M. Kadin,  “Introduction to Superconducting Circuits”,  (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1999).

K. K. Likharev,  “Dynamics of Josephson Junctions and Circuits”, (Gordon and Breach,  1991).

 “Special Issue on APPLICATIONS OF SUPERCONDUCTIVITY”,  Proceedings of the IEEE,  vol. 92,  no. 10  (October 2004),  T Van Duzer and W. V. Hassenzahl,  Eds.,            This issue contains 14 articles on electronic and large-scale applications of superconductivity  and cryogenic refrigeration written by authorities in their respective fields intended for readers  with a sound technical background in superconductivity.

http://www.aip.org/history/mod/superconductivity/01.html         “Introduction to the History of Superconductivity” prepared by Prof. Charles Slichter (University  of Illinois-Urbana IL (USA) in both text and as a video prepared for “ for physics students and scientists”.   This is a fairly concise narrative of the history  of superconductivity from its discovery until about 1972 when the Nobel Prize was presented to John Bardeen, Leon Cooper and Robert Schrieffer for the BCS theory of superconductivity

“Applied Superconductivity Conference”    This conference, which is held biannually on even numbered years,  is the premier  world wide conference on applied superconductivity at which the most recent research and development activities are presented.   The transactions of the most recent Applied Superconductivity Conferences  have been published in IEEE Transactions as flows:

          ASC 2008    IEEE Trans. Appl. Super., vol. 19, no. 3   (June 2009)

          ASC-2006    IEEE Trans. Appl. Super., vol. 17, no. 2  )June 2007)

         ASC-2004    IEEE Trans. Appl. Super., vol. 15, no. 2  (June 2005)

        ASC-2002     IEEE Trans. Appl. Super., vol. 13, no. 2 (June 2003)

        ASC-2000      IEEE Trans. Appl. Super., vol. 11, no. 1 (March 2001)

        ASC-1998      IEEE Trans. Appl. Super., vol. 9, no. 2  (June 1999)

        ASC-1996     IEEE Trans. Appl. Super., vol. 7, no. 2  (June 1997) 

       ASC-1994     IEEE Trans. Appl. Super., vol. 5, no. 2  (June  1995 )

        ASC-1992     IEEE Trans. Appl. Super.,  vol. 3 no. 1  (March, 1993) 

       ASC-1990     IEEE Trans. MAG. Vol. 27, no.  2  (March 1991)           

       ASC-1988     IEEE Trans. MAG, vol.  25, no. 2  (March 1989)          

       ASC-1986     IEEE Trans. MAG, Vol. 23, no.  2  (March 1987)          

       ASC-1984     IEEE Trans. MAG. Vol. 21, no. 2, (March 1985)           

       ASC-1982     IEEE Trans. MAG. Vol. 19, no. 3, (March 1983)           

      ASC-1980     IEEE Trans. MAG. Vol. 17, no. 1  (January 1981)            

      ASC-1978     IEEE Trans. MAG. Vol. 15, no. 1  (January 1979)          

      ASC-1976     IEEE Trans. MAG. Vol. 13, no. 1  (January 1977)

       ASC 1974    IEEE Trans MAG, vol. 11, no. 3  (March 1975)

Please also include references and full citations, and include supporting material in an electronic format (GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC) which can be made available on the IEEE History Center’s Web site to historians, scholars, students, and interested members of the public. All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. If you are including images or photographs as part of the supporting material, it is necessary that you list the copyright owner.

In the space below the line, please describe the historic significance of this work: its importance to the evolution of electrical and computer engineering and science and its importance to regional/national/international development.

Superconducting offers a class of electrical conducting materials which exhibit (near) zero electrical loss and a number of quantum mechanical properties which can result in many novel and unique electrical and electronic devices and systems.

When a sample is in the superconducting state, which for all known superconducting elements, compounds and alloys occur at temperatures below about minus 100 C, samples can carry very large electric currents without any (or, at least, very little) Joule heating.  Thus, one can build electrical machinery, large electromagnets and high current carrying power transmission cables that can operate very efficiently without any dissipation; the only energy required by these superconducting devices and systems is for the refrigeration required to maintain the device at temperatures below its critical (superconducting) transition temperature.   In practice, large superconducting components, devices and systems can have overall electrical power requirements which can be two to five orders of magnitude smaller than corresponding devices and systems built using conventional resistive (and hence, dissipative) technologies.  

Superconducting magnets and magnetic systems have been the enabling technology in a number of medical diagnostic applications, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), as well as most of the recent and future High Energy Physics particle accelerators such at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (Geneva, Switzerland).  The technology is also currently under evaluation for use in making the national electric power grids more energetically efficient by enabling improved power transmission, low loss power transformers and fault current limiters, etc. 

For electronic applications of superconductivity,  Josephson Junction devices are used in the internationally accepted voltage standard and in ultra sensitive magnetometers which have been used in geophysical exploration and in non-contacting, non-invasive magnetocardiography, magnetoencephalography, localization of focal epilepsy and cognitive neuroscience studies   Furthermore, Josephson junction technology has the potential to yield digital logic chips with clock frequencies at least an order of magnitude faster than possible with current or projected semiconductor technology.

Over the years, there have been two primary impediments to the use of superconducting components, devices and systems.   The first obstacle is whether the required superconductor components  (wire and conductor cables, digital logic and memory cells, magnetic field sensing devices, etc., etc.) can be fabricated from superconducting materials and, then whether thy can be build at an economical fashion.  (Most of the so-called High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) materials are ceramic in nature and have very complex crystallographic structures which result in very complex metallurgical properties and thus are relative difficult to form into useful configurations require for  electrical and electronic applications.)  The second major obstacle has been the need for  a suitable cryogenic environment that is cost effective.  The balance between enhanced electrical and electronic performance and the “burden:” of providing an energy-efficient and reliable cryogenic refrigeration system is very complex.   In manyof the instances cited above, it had been deemed advantageous to use the selected superconducting system compared to units fabricated using conventional  (resistive) technologies as the performance advantage achieved by using the superconducting approach far outweighed the “cryogenic burden”. 

What features or characteristics set this work apart from similar achievements?

Superconducting offers a class of electrical conducting materials which exhibit (near) zero electrical loss and a number of quantum mechanical properties which can result in many novel and unique electrical and electronic devices and systems.

When a sample is in the superconducting state, which for all known superconducting elements, compounds and alloys occur at temperatures below about minus 100 C, samples can carry very large electric currents without any (or, at least, very little) Joule heating.  Thus, one can build electrical machinery, large electromagnets and high current carrying power transmission cables that can operate very efficiently without any dissipation; the only energy required by these superconducting devices and systems is for the refrigeration required to maintain the device at temperatures below its critical (superconducting) transition temperature.   In practice, large superconducting components, devices and systems can have overall electrical power requirements which can be two to five orders of magnitude smaller than corresponding devices and systems built using conventional resistive (and hence, dissipative) technologies.  

Superconducting magnets and magnetic systems have been the enabling technology in a number of medical diagnostic applications, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), as well as most of the recent and future High Energy Physics particle accelerators such at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (Geneva, Switzerland).  The technology is also currently under evaluation for use in making the national electric power grids more energetically efficient by enabling improved power transmission, low loss power transformers and fault current limiters, etc. 

For electronic applications of superconductivity,  Josephson Junction devices are used in the internationally accepted voltage standard and in ultra sensitive magnetometers which have been used in geophysical exploration and in non-contacting, non-invasive magnetocardiography, magnetoencephalography, localization of focal epilepsy and cognitive neuroscience studies   Furthermore, Josephson junction technology has the potential to yield digital logic chips with clock frequencies at least an order of magnitude faster than possible with current or projected semiconductor technology.

Over the years, there have been two primary impediments to the use of superconducting components, devices and systems.   The first obstacle is whether the required superconductor components  (wire and conductor cables, digital logic and memory cells, magnetic field sensing devices, etc., etc.) can be fabricated from superconducting materials and, then whether thy can be build at an economical fashion.  (Most of the so-called High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) materials are ceramic in nature and have very complex crystallographic structures which result in very complex metallurgical properties and thus are relative difficult to form into useful configurations require for  electrical and electronic applications.)  The second major obstacle has been the need for  a suitable cryogenic environment that is cost effective.  The balance between enhanced electrical and electronic performance and the “burden:” of providing an energy-efficient and reliable cryogenic refrigeration system is very complex.   In manyof the instances cited above, it had been deemed advantageous to use the selected superconducting system compared to units fabricated using conventional  (resistive) technologies as the performance advantage achieved by using the superconducting approach far outweighed the “cryogenic burden”. 

Please attach a letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property.

The letter is necessary in order to process your nomination form. Click the Attachments tab to upload your letter.

Ltr from U.Leiden 14 June2010.pdf