How do scientists uncover phenomena and explain their connections? How do engineers design machines, methods and infrastructure? At omega tau, experts give detailed answers. Over the last ten years, we have produced over 350 episodes in which we dug deeper, until we ran out of questions. Join us on our journey through the world of science and engineering: the closer you look and listen, the more interesting things get.
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episode 285: Superconductivity
Guest: Pierre Bauer Host: Markus Voelter Shownoter: Kolja Dummann
Superconductivity, the ability of a material to carry electrical current with zero resistance, is a surprising property of nature, which man has been able to exploit in many ways, in particular, for high-performance magnets. Those are used in magnetic resonance imagers, but also in colliders and fusion reactors. In this episode we discuss the basics of superconductivity and its uses with Pierre Bauer, a superconductor engineer at ITER.
Superconductivity and its Discovery 00:03:05
Inversion temperature | Kamerlingh Onnes | James Dewar | Helium | Fritz London | Heinz London | Ohm's law | Energy Gap | Pauli exclusion principle | Cooper pair | Meissner effect
Applications of Superconductors 00:39:08ITER (omega tau 157 - Fusion at ITER | MRI - Magnetic resonance imaging | LHC - Large Hadron Collider (omega tau 30 – The Large Hadron Collider) | omega tau 96 - Controlling the LHC Beam) | StarTram | Railgun
Materials 00:56:45Mercury <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(element) | Niobium | Tin (XFEL - European X-ray free-electron laser | omega tau 197 - The European XFEL | FCC - Future Circular Collider (omega tau 231 – The Future Circular Collider)
Magnet Design 01:14:40Diffusion barrier <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_barrier
Quench Protection 01:54:30Fringe Fields (MagLab - National High Magnetic Field Laboratory) | Superfluidity
Conclusion 02:42:27