|
The
Path to Room Temperature Superconductivity
Hotel Alexandra
Loen, Norway
17 - 23 June 2007
Organizers/Sponsors
Dr. Harold Weinstock, European Office of Aerospace R&D (AFOSR)
Prof. Paul C. W. Chu, Houston International Materials Forum. U.
Houston
Prof. Horst Rogallo, U. Twente
All Presentations
(link added 23 April 2010)
Superconductivity: Past, Present
& Future
An Anthology
Paul M.
Grant
Visiting Scholar in
Applied Physics, Stanford University
EPRI Science Fellow (Retired)
IBM Research Staff Member Emeritus
Principal, W2AGZ Technologies
http://www.w2agz.com
Invocation - Prediction -
Benediction
|
"Whither
Superconductivity?,"
P. M. Grant.
[Introductory talk focused on
what's past, what's going on right now, and what the future
may hold.] |
| "The
Da Vinci Code,"
P. M. Grant.
[Catchy, eh? Before
looking at the video, Google "Niels Bohr's kid brother.]; "Researchers
Find Extraordinarily High Temperature Superconductivity in
Bio-Inspired Nanopolymer," P. M. Grant, Physics Today, May 1998.
[My whimsical SciFi
essay covering the great discovery in 2028 of an embodiment
of Bill Little's model of exciton mediated
superconductivity. You eventually "get what you need." (see
SuperTunes)] |
| "So
What?,"
P. M. Grant
[OK, we have an RTSC...then
what do we do with it? Not so obvious.] |
*PDF files do not contain animation...for PPT
originals, contact me.
The Day Before Yesterday -
Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow
Vitaly L. Ginzburg
The Discovery of High-Tc
Mueller-Bednorz Science Magazine Story
Bednorz-Mueller Nobel Lecture
High Temperature Superconductivity - Tanaka
Video Memories
from 1987
(Files are in
windows media (.wmv) format)
Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow
Bibliography
Be sure to read the fine
print colored maroon
Many of the files are huge (~40 MB)...play some
SuperTunes while downloading
Superconductivity
Yesterday
| "Superconductivity:
The Day Before Yesterday - Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow,"
V. L. Ginzburg, Physics - Uspekhi 43, 573 (2000).
[A marvelous review of
the ghosts of superconductivity, past, present and future,
written in the style only Vitaly Ginzburg can create.
The bibliography spans the entire scientific history of
superconductivity.] |
| H. Kamerlingh
Onnes, Commun. Leiden 120b (1911). |
| "Ein
neuer Effekt bei Eintritt der Supraleitfaehigkeit (A New
Effect Concerning the Ability to Penetrate a
Superconductor)", W. Meissner and R. Ochsenfeld, Die
Naturwissenshaften 44, 787 (1933).
[(In German) Discovery
that when a superconductor is cooled in an external magnetic
field, that field is expelled from within the
superconductor. It is this effect that differentiates
a superconductor from a "perfect conductor."]
|
| "Measurements
of the Specific Heat of Thallium at Liquid Helium
Temperatures," W. H. Keesom and J. A. Kok, Physica 1,
175 (1934). [The first
widely circulated report of a first-order jump in specific
heat in a "Type I" superconductor, a major clue to what
would become GL theory.] |
| "On
Supraconductivity I," C. J. Gorter and H. Casimir,
Physica 1, 306 (1934).
[A thermodynamic and
phenomenological treatment of the Meissner-Ochsenfeld field
expulsion effect, showing that such expulsion lowers the
overall free energy and explains the specific heat jump
observed by Keesom and collaborators at Leiden. This
paper is an anticipation of the Ginzburg-Landau theory.] |
| "The
Electromagnetic Equations of the Supraconductor," F.
London and H. London, Proc Roy. Soc London A149, 71 (1935).
[An empirical
reformulation of Maxwell's equations to accommodate the
Meissner-Ochsenfeld field expulsion effect. Introduces
the key concept of a magnetic field penetration depth.] |
| "Ginzburg-Landau
Theory (Wikipedia)," Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 20, 1064
(1950). [Can't find
the original Russian or a translation...only Wikipedia...sorry] |
| "Isotope
Effect in the Superconductivity of Mercury," E. Maxwell,
Phys. Rev. 78, 477 (1950); "Superconductivity
of Isotopes of Mercury," C. A. Reynolds, B. Serin, W. H.
Wright, and L. B. Nesbitt, Phys. Rev. 78, 487 (1950).
[Both these papers
were submitted simultaneously on 24 March 1950, each
becoming aware of the other's work only a few weeks before
at an ONR conference. Interestingly, earlier attempts
at Leiden in 1922 to observe an isotope effect in Pb, and in
1941 in Germany, failed to give any observable effects.
These present experiments suggested the atomic mass, and
perhaps lattice vibrations, were a fundamental ingredient in
superconductivity.] |
| "Theory
of the Superconducting State. I. The Ground State at the
Absolute Zero of Temperature," H. Froehlich, Phys. Rev.
79, 845 (1950).
[This paper is the
first speculation that lattice vibrations might be involved
in superconductivity. However, it deals with the scattering
of only one electron, and not pairs. It explains the earlier
discovery of the isotope effect, although Froehlich was not
aware of its existence when he first submitted this paper.] |
| "An
Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Relation between
Magnetic Field and Current in a Superconductor," A.
B. Pippard, Proc. Roy. Soc. London A216, 547 (1953).
[In this paper, Brian
Pippard elucidates a fundamental key concept underlying all
BCS-like theories of superconductivity, whether strong or
weak coupling.] |
| "Bound
Electron Pairs in a Degenerate Fermi Gas," L. N. Cooper, Phys. Rev.
104, 1189 (1956).
[Cooper's seminal
demonstration that an arbitrarily weak attractive
interaction between electrons degenerate at the Fermi
surface would lead to their pairing. He speculated that such
an attraction could arise from lattice vibrations.] |
| A. A. Abrikosov,
Sov. Phys. JETP 5, 1174 (1957).
[xxx] |
| "Theory
of Superconductivity," J. Bardeen, L. N. Cooper and J.
R. Schrieffer, Phys. Rev. 108, 1175 (1957).
[The BCS Nobel Prize
paper. Finally, an explanation of superconductivity
some 46 years after its discovery. The BCS theory is
the crowning theoretical achievement of condensed matter
physics in the 20th Century. This paper is also an
outstanding review of the past theoretical attempts to
explain superconductivity and why they failed.] |
| A. B. Migdal, Sov.
Phys. JETP 7, 996 (1958).
[xxx] |
| L. P. Gorkov, Sov.
Phys. JETP 9, 1364 (1959).
[xxx] |
| G. M. Eliashberg,
Sov. Phys. JETP 11, 1364 (1959).
[xxx] |
| "Transition
Temperature of Strong-Coupled Superconductors," W.
L. McMillan, Phys.
Rev. 167, 331 (1968). [The "practical theory" of superconductivity which allowed
relating the electron-phonon coupling to tunneling
spectroscopy, the so-called alpha-2 F(omega).] |
| "A
Research Investigation of the Factors That Affect the
Superconducting Properties of Materials," GE Report
AD480235, 15 November 1965.
[The classic GE study
done under Air Force sponsorship which contains the first
detailed study of hysteretic losses in Type II
superconductors, otherwise known at the Bean Model.] |
| "Structure
and Properties of High-Field Superconductors," J.
D. Livingston, GE R&D Center Report (ca. 1969-70).
[Jim Livingston's
great little review of critical currents and pinning in Type
II superconductors, probably still the clearest exposition
of these issues and eerily relevant to anisotropic
superconductors yet to be discovered.] |
| "Transition
Temperature of Strong-Coupled Superconductors Reanalyzed,"
P. B. Allen and R. C. Dynes, Phys. Rev. B 12, 905 (1975).
[This paper applies an
important correction to the McMillan BCS Debye temperature
prefactor, involving a logarithmic average over the total
e-p coupling as measured by tunneling spectroscopy.] |
| "Critical
Fields, Pauli Paramagnetic Limiting, and Material Parameters
of Nb3Sn and V3Si," T. P. Orlando,
E. J. McNiff, Jr., S. Foner and M. R. Beasley, Phys. Rev. B
19, 4545 (1978).
[The appendices of this paper
contain a tremendously useful compilation of GLAG equations
in various clean and dirty limits.] |
| "Type
II Superconductivity: Quest for Understanding," T. G.
Berlincourt, IEEE Trans. Mag. MAG-23, 403 (1987).
[Probably the
definitive history of Type II (hard) superconductors.
Especially fascinating are the tribulations of Shubnikov and
the complete ignorance in the US of the achievements of
Abrikosov due to the curtain of the Cold War.] |
| "The
Critical Current of a Superconductor: An Historical Review,"
D. Dew-Hughes,Low Temperature Physics 27, 713 (2001).
[Probably the most up-to-date
summary of the most important parameter for applications,
next to Tc.] |
Back to Yesterday
Superconductivity Today
| "Possibility
of Insulator to Superconductor Phase Transition," B. K.
Chakraverty, J. Physique-Lettres 40,L-99 (1978).
[Alex Mueller cites
this paper, and the following two, as his principal
inspiration to pursue mixed valent charge transition metal
complexes as possible hosts for high temperature
superconductivity.] |
| "Bipolarons
and Superconductivity," B. K.
Chakraverty, J. Physique 42, 1351 (1981).
[A elaboration of the
above paper.] |
| "Jahn-Teller
Effect in Itinerant Electron Systems: The Jahn-Teller
Polaron," K.-H. Hoeck, H. Nickish and H. Thomas,
Helvetica Physica Acta 56, 237 (1983).
[Mueller attributes
great importance to this paper as pointing to tetragonal
symmetry as hosting strong coupling of itinerant electrons
to a Jahn-Teller distortion such as found in mixed valent
compounds. Quite curiously, several years after the
publication of this paper, Hoeck seems to have "disappeared"
from the scientific scene.] |
| C. Michel and B.
Raveau, Rev. Chim. Min. 21, 407 (1984).
[This is a very old
journal and has a number of continuations. I have not
been able to obtain a copy yet. It contains the first
Caen paper on LA-4-1-5-13
that Bednorz found.] |
| "The
Oxygen Defect Perovskite BaLa4Cu5O13.4,
a Metallic Conductor," C. Michel, L. Er-Rakho and B. Raveau,
Mat. Res. Bull. 20, 667 (1985).
[An elaboration of
measurements reported in the Revue de Chimie Mineral paper.
Shown are the thermopower and resistivity data from 200 -
550 K. Had measurements been made down to liquid
helium temperatures, it is likely the Caen Group would have
found some traces of superconductivity, especially in the
thermopower. Apparently, the main interest of these
workers in this material was for catalysis applications and
high temperature oxygen sensors for use in, for example,
cement kilns.] |
| "Possible
High TC Superconductivity in the Ba-La-Cu-O
System," J. G. Bednorz and K. A. Mueller, Z. Phys B -
Condensed Matter 64, 189 (1986).
[The discovery publication.
Ironically, Bednorz chose initially the only copper oxide
perovskite that's metallic at all temperatures and
superconducting at none, but which is extremely difficult to
make single phase. It was soon recognized that it was
a minor secondary phase responsible for the appearance of
superconductivity and they were on their way. There is
quite a story behind this paper.] |
| "Susceptibility
Measurements Support High TC Superconductivity in
the Ba-La-Cu-O System," J. G. Bednorz, M. Takashige and
K. A. Mueller, IBM Report RZ 1537, 19 November 1986.
[This link is actually
to a preprint received on 15 October 1986 by Rick Greene from
Alex Mueller (with autograph!). The Zuerich workers,
contrary to popular belief, in reality were the first to
confirm their own discovery.] |
| "Susceptibility
Measurements Support High TC Superconductivity in
the Ba-La-Cu-O System," J. G. Bednorz, M. Takashige and
K. A. Mueller, Europhys. Lett. 3, 379 (1987). [The
paper resulting from the above preprint. Read the note added
prior to publication.] |
| "Flux
Trapping and Superconductive Glass State in La2CuO4-y:Ba,"
K. A. Mueller, M. Takashige and J. G. Bednorz, Phys. Rev.
Letters 58, 1143 (1987).
[This is the third
remarkable paper out of IBM Zuerich which started the whole
subsequent study of flux dynamics in these anisotropic
superconductors.] |
| "Superconductivity
at 93 K in a New Mixed-Phase Y-Ba-Cu-O Compound at Ambient
Pressure," W. K. Wu, et al., Phys. Rev. Letters 58, 908
(1987).
[The Wu-Chu discovery
of YBCO...but not 1-2-3.] |
|
"Superconductivity
Above 90 K in the Compound YBa2Cu3Ox:
Structural, Transport, and Magnetic Properties,"
P. M. Grant, R. B. Beyers, E. M. Engler, G. Lim, S. S. P.
Parkin, M. L. Ramirez, V. Y. Lee, A. Nazzal, J. E. Vazquez
and R. J. Savoy, Phys. Rev. B35, 7242 (1987).
[First Report
of the "1-2-3" Crystal Structure and Material
Processing Conditions. More story to follow. Until
then, go here.] |
|
"Superconductivity Above Liquid Nitrogen Temperature:
Preparation and Properties of a Family of Perovskite-Based
Superconductors,"
E. M. Engler, V. Y. Lee, A. I. Nazzal, R. B. Beyers, G. Lim,
P. M. Grant, S. S. P. Parkin, M. L. Ramirez, J. E. Vazquez
and R. J. Savoy, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 109, 2848 (1987).
[The best paper hands down,
written by Ed Engler, that came out of the 1987 APS Meeting
of March, 1987, the "Woodstock of Physics." This is
the first report, which I was honored to give at
"Woodstock," on the structure, processing and properties, of
the rare earth substitutions for yttrium. There are
two retrospective "blunders" in this paper. One was
the attribution for the lack of superconductivity in
Pr-1-2-3 to the absence of the orthorhombic phase, which was
due to low oxygen concentration, later the subject of a more
comprehensive
paper. The other was reporting superconductivity
in the Ba-Ca-Sr fractional substitution which turned out to
be a blown labeling of samples! What the hell...we
were in battle!] |
|
"Evidence
for Superconductivity in La2CuO4,"
P. M. Grant, S. S. P. Parkin, V. Y. Lee, E. M. Engler, M.
L. Ramirez, J. E. Vazquez, G. Lim, R. D. Jacowitz and R. L.
Greene, Phys. Rev. Letters 58, 2482 (1987).
[This was a remarkable
discovery. In January, 1987, Rick Greene and I
observed zero thermopower at 41 K, a clear signature of
superconductivity, in an "undoped" sample of La2CuO4
given us by Georg Bednorz, one which was completely
insulating! Read the paper to find out what happened.
High-Temperature superconductivity could have been
discovered in 1954!] |
| "The
Discovery of a Class of High Temperature Superconductors,"
K. A. Mueller and J. G. Bednorz, Science 237, 1133 (1987).
[Story of the
discovery by the discoverers.] |
| "Critical-Current
Measurements in Epitaxial Films of YBa2Cu3O7-x
Compound," P. Chaudhari, et al., Phys. Rev. Letters 58,
2684 (1987). [The first epitaxial
films of Y-123 were made the evening of Monday,10 March
1987, the week before Woodstock, by Bob Laibowitz, using
structural and processing data supplied by IBM Almaden.] |
| "Orientation
Dependence of Grain-Boundary Critical Currents in
YBa2Cu3O7-δ
Bicrystals,"
Dimos, et. al, Phys. Rev.
Letters 61, 219 (1987).
[This is the famous "Dimos"
paper that provided the science to jump start the worldwide
developmen of coated conductor, or Gen 2 tape.] |
| "Resistive
Transition of High Temperature Superconductors," M.
Tinkham, Phys. Rev. Letters 61, 1658 (1988).
[This paper scared the hell
out of us when it appeared, because it implied the newly
discovered HTSC compounds may not be practical because of
thermal depinning of the Abrikosov vortex lattice. Its
appearance engendered a column in Science by Robert Poole, "Superconductivity:
Is the Party Over?" Tinkham concludes that a future
room temperature superconductor may indeed be in the
superconducting state, but not have zero resistance!
This is a great problem for future research.] |
| "Superconductivity:
Is the Party Over?," R. Poole, Science 244, 914 (1988).
[Column inspired by
Tinkham's article supported by some of David Bishop's flux
lattice melting work at Bell Labs. The piece quotes a
number of industrial leaders to the effect that "we're not
going to quit." No major corporation has a
superconductivity program today, and one of them now belongs
to a French company.] |
| "The
Development of Superconductivity Research in Oxides," K.
Alex Mueller (Monograph, date uncertain, ca. 1998-99).
[The description of
the science background and Mueller's thinking that led to
the eventual discovery of high temperature superconductivity
in the copper oxide perovskites.] |
| "High-Temperature
Superconductivity (History and General Review)," V. L. Ginzburg, Sov. Phys. Usp. 34,283
(1991)]. [Written in
Ginzburg's delightful wry English style, his reflection on
the recent discoveries of superconductivity in the cuprates
and implications for the future.] |
| |
| "Ich
war wie in Trance," NZZ am Sonntag, 21 Januar 2006, p.
67. [An
interview (in German) of George Bednorz in the Swiss
National Sunday newspaper on the occasion of the 20th
anniversary of his observation of zero resistance. The
"trance" refers not to the moment of discovery, but when he
received the Nobel Prize and probably had to dance with the
Queen of Sweden.] |
Back to
Today
Superconductivity Tomorrow
| F. London, Superfluids, 1950 |
| "Possibility
of Synthesizing an Organic Superconductor," W. A.
Little, Phys. Rev. 134, A1416 (1964).
[In this paper, Little
examines and elaborates a speculation by F. London that
macromolecules might exhibit superfluid-like properties in
the context of the BSC model formulated a few years earlier.
However, in the molecular structure proposed by Little,
excitons on polarizable side group molecules replace phonons
as the "boson glue" pairing carriers on a conducting polymer
backbone. Curiously, Bill speculates that such a structure
might be capable of self-replication or "reproduction."] |
| "Superconductivity
at Room Temperature," W. A. Little, Scientific American
212, 21 (1965). [This
was the paper that inspired Rick Greene and myself to begin
our (to date unsuccessful) search for the realization of
Bill's model in charge-transfer and polymer organics.
You can't always get what you want...go to
SuperTunes below] |
| "Dynamic
Effective Electron-Electron Interaction in the Vicinity of a
Polarizable Molecule," W. A. Little and H. Gutfreund,
Phys. Rev. B 4, 817 (1971).
[Numerical calculation of the
spatial, but not momentum, dependence of the electron-exciton
coupling.] |
| "Proposed
Model of a High-Temperature Excitonic Superconductor,"
D. Davis, H. Gutfreund, and W. A. Little, Phys. Rev. B 13,
4766 (1976). [The bottom line is that a very particular exciton-fermion
coupling k-space dispersion is required to favor
superconducting pairing over dimerization into a static
Peierls-Froehlich state.] |
| V. L. Ginzburg, Usp. Fiz. Nauk 101,
185 (1970) [Sov. Phys. Usp. 13,335 (1970)]. |
| "Model
for an Exciton Mechanism of Superconductivity," D.
Allender, J. Bray and J. Bardeen, Phys. Rev. B 7, 1020
(1973). [Speculation that
carries at a metal-semiconductor interface may couple to
excitons in the semiconductor leading to a Little-like
pairing (curiously there is no reference to any of Little's
papers). Many have searched for this effect, and none
(reproducible) have been found.] |
| "Comment
on 'Model for an Exciton Mechanism of Superconductivity',"
J. C. Inkson and P. W. Anderson, Phys. Rev. B 8, 4429
(1973). [Claims a technical
error was made by ABB.] |
| "Comment
on 'Model for an Exciton Mechanism of Superconductivity' --
A Reply," D. Allender, J. Bray and J. Bardeen, Phys.
Rev. B 8, 4433 (1973).
[Asserts the IA model
does not correspond to theirs. Still no clear experimental
one way or the other.] |
|
June
2005 Notre Dame Workshop on the Possibility of RTSC |
| "Design
for a Room Temperature Superconductor," W. E. Pickett,
BES Workshop on Superconductivity, May 2006.
[Better bone up on
Diophantine problems before reading this. A review of
Fibonacci sequences may be useful as well. I am NOT
kidding!] |
| "Researchers
Find Extraordinarily High Temperature Superconductivity in
Bio-Inspired Nanopolymer," Paul M. Grant, Physics Today, May 1998.
[My whimsical SciFi
essay covering the great discovery in 2028 of an embodiment
of Bill Little's model of exciton mediated
superconductivity. You eventually "get what you need." (see
SuperTunes)] |
| |
| Links to some other "higher temperature"
superconductivity sites are listed below: |
| "The
Possibility of Room Temperature Superconductivity,"
Notre Dame (Year Unknown, Probably 2006). |
| "KITP
Program: The Physics of Higher Temperature Superconductivity,"
KITP-UCSB (June 15 - September 11, 2009). |
| "Session
T41: Focus Session: Search for New Superconductors -
Nanotubes and Fullerides,"
2010 APS March Meeting (17 March 2010, Portland, OR). |
| |
Back to Tomorrow
Applications
SuperWiki
Be sure to read the fine
print colored brown
Many of the files are huge (~40 MB)...play some
SuperTunes while downloading
Power Apps of
Superconductivity
|
"Superconductivity
and Electric Power: Promises, Promises...Past, Present and
Future," P. M. Grant, IEEE Trans. Appl. Super. 7, 112
(1997). [Based
on a Plenary Lecture at the 1996 Applied Superconductivity
Conference held in Pittsburg. An in your face review of
where power applications have been, were at in 1997, and
where they might be going. Contains a description of
the "electricity pipe" concept of Grant, Schoenung and
Hassenzahl] |
| "Cost
Projections for High Temperature Superconductors," P. M.
Grant and T. P. Sheahen,
http://arxiv.org/ftp/cond-mat/papers/0202/0202386.pdf,
Applied Superconductivity Conference, Palm Springs, CA,
1998. [An
engineering-economy based approach to estimating eventual
cost/performance of both Generation 1 (OPIT/BSCCO/Ag) and
Generation 2 coated conductor (textured YBCO) HTSC tape.
Unlike wires made from non-superconducting metals, e.g.,
copper, the cost/performance in $/kA×m of HTSC tapes is
highly application specific and cannot be reduced to a
single number.] |
| "Potential
Electric Power Applications for Magnesium Diboride,"
P. M. Grant, Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 689, 3 (2002).
[A
quite controversial paper showing magnesium diboride
promises to be cost competitive for power transformer
application.] |
| "Superconductivity
for Electric Systems 2005 Annual Peer Review," August 2-4, 2005,
L'enfant Plaza Hotel, Washington, D.C.
[Link to the latest DOE
Office of Electricity superconductivity program content,
containing downloadable pdfs of the talks.] |
| "Superconductivity
Technology Center at LANL,"
[Home page at Los
Alamos, with detail on their coated conducting program and
links to other sites.] |
|
"High-Temperature
Superconductivity (HTS) R&D at ORNL,"
[Oak Ridge
superconductivity home page containing details of its
program in wire development and power applications.] |
| "DOE
Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability -
Superconductivity Program,"
[Home page of the DOE
program in power applications of superconductivity.] |
|
Navigant Report: High Temperature Superconductivity Market
Readiness Review
[DOE commissioned report on
current state of HTSC technology and when market penetration
is likely to occur and where.] |
Back to
SuperWiki
Superconductor Cable
Anthology
|
"Prospect
of Employing Conductors at Low Temperature in Power Cables
and in Power Transformers,"
K. J. R. Wilkinson, Proc. IEE (London) 113, 1509 (1966).
[First
serious consideration of cryoresistive power cables,
including Nb at 4 K operating in the Meissner state!] |
| "Superconducting
Lines for the Transmission of Large Amounts of Electric
Power over Great Distances," R. L. Garwin and J. Matisoo,
Proc. IEEE 55, 538 (1967).
[A Classic! All subsequent considerations of
superconducting dc cables derives from Garwin-Matisoo. This
paper is necessary reading for anyone interested in power
applications of superconductivity.] |
| "Multiple
Use of Cryogenic Fluid Transmission Lines,"
J. R. Bartlit, F. J. Edeskuty and E. F. Hammel,
Proc. ICEC4, Eindhoven, 24/26 May 1972. [This prescient study from LANL explores the dual delivery of
methane and/or hydrogen as energy agents in a "SuperCable"
concept. However, neither serves as a cryogen...liquid
hydrogen was necessary...the discovery of high temperature
superconductivity was still 13 years in the future!]
|
| "dc
Superconducting Power Transmission Line Project at LASL,"
ed. F. J. Edeskuty, US DOE Division of Electric Energy
Systems, 1 November 1972 - 30 September 1979, Progess Report
24 (Final). [Massive and inclusive study of a large capacity, 5 GW SCDC
cable employing Nb3Sn, sponsored by DOE and the
Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) representing the
interests of several eastern utilities (this was "before
EPRI"). The project was discontinued after building
and testing a few meters of conductor due to lack of funding
and lack of utility interest (Thanks to Dean Peterson of
LANL for making this report public).] |
| "Refrigeration
and Heat Transfer in Superconducting Power Lines,"
D. E. Daney and R. H. Hammond, NIST Interim Report
275.05-75-2, April 1975.
[An interesting study of the use of slush hydrogen as
cryogen for an Nb3Ge dc cable. No intention
to use the hydrogen as an energy source in and of itself is
discussed.] |
| "Performance
Summary of the Brookhaven Superconducting Power Transmission
System," E. B. Forsyth and R. A. Thomas, Cryogenics 26,
599 (1986). [A
1000 MVA, three phase ac cable built using NbTi at 4 K and
tested at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the years just
preceding the discovery of high temperature
superconductivity. The project was technically
successful, but major utilities did not think the technology
economically feasible (I know this information directly from
several "personal communications.").] |
| "Practical
Conclusions from Field Trials of a Superconducting Cable,"
P. A. Klaudy and J. Gerhold, IEEE Trans. Mag. MAG-19, 656
(1983). [The
first superconducting cable to be installed on a grid (near
Arnstein, Austria). It used Nb at 6.5 K as the
superconductor and had a capacity of 60 kV at 1000 A and
operated continuously from 1977-80. It may be that the
Nb was operated in the Meissner state...there is no mention
of ac losses. The emphasis was on the flexible design,
rather than the superconducting properties.] |
| "A
dc Transmission Cable Prototype Using High-Temperature
Superconductors," T. P. Beales, et al., Supercond. Sci.
Technol. 9, 43 (1995).
[The first attempt at an HTSC
cable, at least a short one. The design is an interesting
one, targeting a 400 km European "ring buss" with a 400 MW,
40 kV, 10 kA capacity with cold He gas at 4.2 K blown in one
end and warming to 40 K at the other, well within the
critical parameter limits of Bi-2223 throughout that range.] |
| "System
Study of Long Distance Low Voltage Transmission Using High
Temperature Superconducting Cable," S. M. Schoenung, W.
V. Hassenzahl and P. M. Grant, EPRI Report WO8065-12, March,
1997. [This
study was inspired by a talk I heard from ABB at the 1996
World Energy Conference in Yokohama, Japan, which compared
the cost effectiveness for well head generation at a vast
natural gas reserve such the Qatar region in the Persian
Gulf and transport over HVDC lines. We studied a third
alternative, that using a superconducting "e-pipe" to
transport power from Qatar to a future
Egyptian-Palestine-Israel-Syrian industrial complex, and
concluded this alternative was attractive for distances
greater than 500 miles.] |
| "Superconducting
Cable Construction and Testing," D. von Dollen and J.
Daley, Final Report 1000160, November 2000.
[This project was
better known as the "EPRI/Pirelli Cable," and resulted from
studies performed by EPRI and Pirelli in the early 1990s.
The intent was the design and construction of a 50-m long US
standard "pipe type" cable to retrofit 115 kV ac cables with
an increased 3-phase capacity to 400 MVA. The design
did not have a superconducting shield which simplified the
insulation package (so-called "room temperature
dielectric"), but exposed each phase to induced co-phase ac
losses in addition to those arising from "self-current"
flow. This design was the basis for the Detroit-Edison
demonstration, NKT's Copenhagen Airport, and China's Puji
substation. It was during final testing of this cable
that the "blister/balloon" problem manifested, arising from
leakage of liquid nitrogen into the BSCCO filaments through
pinholes in the Ag tape, leading to its literal "exploding"
when the cable was warmed up. AMSC solved this by
later solder-cladding the silver tapes with stainless steel.
Since this issue was considered proprietary at the time,
there is no discussion of it in this report. |
"ac
Loss in Superconducting Power Cables," M. Daeumling, et
al., Studies of High Temperature Superconductors (ed. A.
Narlikar, Nova Science Publishers), Vol. 33, p. 73 (2000).
[Probably
the best treatise on ac losses in print. Written by
the design team of the Copenhagen Airport Cable.] |
| "Copenhagen
Airport Demonstration," Dag Willen, NKT Cables Press
Release, 28 May 2001.
[An RTD design like
Detroit Edison. Worked well, but no follow-on project.
The NKT superconductivity unit was later sold to Nexans.] |
| "Field
Demonstration of a 24-kV Warm Dielectric Superconducting
Cable at Detroit Edison," S. Eckroad and N. Kelly, EPRI
FY2003 Annual Progress Report 1002040,
Technical Update, March 2004.
[The Detroit-Edison
demonstration remains today the most realistic deployment of
a superconducting cable, three cables, 120-m each, threaded
though 50-year old clay ducts containing five 90-degree
bends approximately 2-m radius of curvature.
Unfortunately, the cryostat welds contained a number of
martensitic phases resulting in vacuum leaks which prevented
the cable from being fully energized at specification
voltage. However, the critical current and ac loss
properties of the superconducting tape were measured and
found to have undergone little significant degradeation
during the cablve installation. A system study
associated with the project on the impact of coaxial
(shielded) superconducting cables resulted in demonstrating
the network advantages a very low inductive reactance cable
might present in utility operation. |
| "China's
30m, 35kv/2kA ac HTS Power Cable Project," Ying Xin, et
al., EUCAS 2003.
[This project was
essentially "Detroit-Edison without cryostat leaks" and
performed to its specifications perfectly.
Unfortunately, there are now plans currently in place to
follow-on.]] |
| "Feasibility
of Electric Power Transmission by DC Superconducting Cables,"
P. Chowdhuri, C. Pallem, J. A. Demko and M. J. Gouge
IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond 15, 3917 (2005).
[Study of GW and
500 MW SCDC cables. Emphasis is on cryogenics,
inverter/converter issues and harmonic control] |
| "Southwire
HTS Cable Program Overview," D. Lindsay, 2005 US DOE
Peer Review, 2 August 2005
[Altogether, this is
one of earliest of US HTSC cable programs. The 30-m
installation at Southwire's Carrollton, GA plant has been in
operation almost continuously for six years. The follow-on
project will be installed in the Columbus, OH Bixby
substation. This is an adaptation of a conventional
triaxial design wherein all three phases are enclosed.
The HTSC cable will be 200-m, 13.2 kV, 1000 A/phase 69 MVA
circuit.] |
| "Albany
Cable Project Progress Update," C. Weber, R. Lee and K.
Hayashi, 2005 US DOE Peer Review, 2 August 2005.
[Cable demonstration
at a Niagara Mohawk substation using Sumitomo's "3-in-1"
cable design. They plan to have a 15-m segment using Gen 2
YBCO tape.] |
| "LIPA
Project Overview," 2005 US DOE Peer Review," 2 August
2005.
[Long Island Power
Authority 610-m 136 kV, 2400 A cable project with Nexans and
American Superconductor.] |
| "HTS
Transmission Network Will Be the Key of 21st Century's Power
Grid," R. Hata, Kunming Symposium, 24 June 2004.[A
survey of all tape and cable programs in Japan by Ryosuke
Hata of Sumitomo Electric Industries.] |
| "Getting
the Metrics Right," D. Lindsay, 2006 DOE Wire
Development Workshop, 30 January 2006, St. Petersburg, FL.
[A thoughtful
appraisal the present approach to measuring and reporting
"metric" presumed critical to commercial acceptance.
Lindsay suggests adopting a new metric with units "$/system-MVA/meter/30yr
life." |
| "R&D
of 22.9 kV/50 MVA HTS Transmission Power Cable in Korea,"
J. Cho, Kunming Symposium, 24 June 2004.
[Review of the entire
Korean program by all participating agencies and not limited
to cables.] |
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SuperWiki
Past SC Application
Surveys/Workshops
| "Research
Opportunities in Superconductivity," M. Tinkham, M. R.
Beasley, D. C. Larbalestier, A. F. Clark and D. K. Finnemore,
Report on the Workshop on Problems in Superconductivity,
22-23 August 1983, Copper Mountain, CO (Sponsored by NSF,
ONR and NBS), November, 1983.
[This
workshop was held against the background of a substantial
decline in funding for superconductivity by Federal agencies
and the impending decision taken by IBM during the writing
of this report to scale back its Josephson computer project.
On page 12 one can find the phrase penned by Mac Beasley,
"At the extreme forefront of research in superconductivity
is the empirical search for new superconductors...," which
was quoted by Bednorz and Mueller as the first line of their
discovery paper. This report has only this one
citation in the technical literature, but what a citation!
A lesson to be learned...do not try to justify basic
research on the expectation of applications. By the
way, this report focuses overwhelmingly on electronics...the
only mention of a power application is SMES.] |
| "Superconductors:
The Long Road Ahead," S. Foner and T. P. Orlando, MIT
Technology Review, February/March 1988, p. 36.
[Published the year following
the YBCO discovery, this piece expresses great caution over
the high expectations prevalent during this period.
The article is a very good survey of past superconductivity
application attempts, their successes and failures, and the
impact HTSC might or might not have in the future.] |
| "Report
on Discussions with Utility Engineers about Superconducting
Generators," D. Forbes and R. Blaugher, NREL/TP-413-20668,
March 1996. [Bottom
Line: The major advantage perceived for HTSC generators was
their projected low life-cycle costs. Most respondents
did not feel a significant US market would develop earlier
than 15 - 20 years from the date of the report. As far
as I know, with the possible exception of a very small LTSC
unit in Japan, no superconducting generators are deployed or
planned for deployment anywhere in the world at present.] |
| "The
US Market for High-Temperature Superconducting Wire in
Transmission Cable Applications," D. Forbes, NREL/TP-450-20667,
April 1996.
[This report summarizes a
series of interviews with utility engineers on the market
potential for HTSC cables, wires and tapes. A number
of interesting anecdotes are related which give insight into
various aspects of utility culture. The report
concludes that HTSC wire sales for cables would reach $66 M
in 2006. The future is hard to predict.] |
| "Power
Applications of Superconductivity in Japan and Germany,"
D. Larbalestier, et al., WTEC Panel Final Report ISBN
1-883712-46-7, September 1997.
[The infamous male bonding
trip featuring lost colleagues and broken laptops.
This report had major impact on increasing the DOE
superconductivity appropriation thereafter by 60%.] |
| "HTS
Cable -- Status, Challenge and Opportunity," A. M.
Wolsky, International Energy Agency Report, 2 December 2004.
[Alan Wolsky's "Magnum
Opus," 407 pages of everything you need or would ever want
to know about superconducting cables. Lots of good
tables on conventional HVDC transmission lines and cables
installed worldwide.] |
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SuperTunes
| Realities of Life |
| "You
Can't Always Get What You Want...," M. Jagger and K.
Richards, (Let It Bleed, ca. 1969).
[Both Bill Little and I want
this played at our respective funerals. The legend is that
Mick wanted to get a "cherry coke" at a London "chemist's"
who were out of cherries and cherry syrup. He was thus
told, "You can't always get what you want." This
typifies the long search for room temperature
superconductivity. Enjoy.} |
| "Tomorrow,"
R. Seger, (ca. 1970s).
[A parable on the
difficulties of predicting the future...like applications of
superconductivity!] |
|
"It's
a Long Way to the Top...,"
Bon Scott, Malcolm Young and Angus Young, (High
Voltage, 1975).
[...If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll. The "Top" in this
case is T > 300 K.] |
| Songs of Irish Freedom |
| "Roddy
McCorley," Ethna Carberry, (A Ballad of the Irish
Rebellion of 1798, lyrics ca. 1890).
[Nothing to do with
superconductivity, although the underlying ideas that
eventually explained it were developed by the Irish
physicists Michael Faraday and William Thomsen. If you
ever wonder why immigrants come to America, here's one
reason...at
home you got hung if you spoke out.] |
| "Boolavogue,"
P. J. McCall, (The Wexford Uprising in 1798, lyrics 1898).
[Ambush of a British cavalry
regiment led by Father John Murphy, pastor of the local
parish. Involvement of Catholic clergy against the British
was unusual, since a "quid pro quo" between the Irish
hierarchy and the Church of England required the
excommunication of all and any who fought against the crown.
Father Murphy was later captured, hung and his body burned.
Nice.] |
| "Grace,"
Frank & Sean O'Meara, (The Easter Uprising in 1916, lyrics
1985). [The ballad of Irish poet
Joseph Plunkett and his bride Grace Gifford. They were
to be married on Easter Sunday, 1916. However, unknown to
Grace, Plunkett was a member of the Irish resistance
behind the Dublin rebellion and was subsequently captured.
The two were married in Kilmainham jail on the early morning
of 4 May 1916. They were given 10 minutes together
guarded by 15 British soldiers. Plunkett was then
taken out and shot.] |
| "Only
Our Rivers Run Free," Mickey MacConnell, (Homily on
a united Ireland,lyrics 1985).
[Mickey MacConnell is a Kerry
newspaper columnist and song writer, and Only Our Rivers Run
Free was written during the times of the IRA attacks in the
North.] |
| "The
Town I Loved So Well," Phil Coulter, (Derry and the
Troubles, lyrics ca. 1970s).
[Many consider this ballad
the unofficial National Anthem of Northern Ireland. It
recounts the garrisoning of Derry by the British Army during
70s and the destruction that followed. It concludes,
"I can only pray for a bright new day," and recent accords
between the North and the Republic may indeed see its
dawning. Yet even today there is very little social
mixing between the Protestant and Catholic populations in
Northern Ireland, as between Shia and Sunni in Iraq.
Such is a situation impossible for most Americans to fathom.] |
| "The
Skye Boat Song," Harold Boulton, (ca. 1930s, lyrics
based on a 18th Century Scottish aire).
[Relates the escape of
Charles Stuart to the Isle of Skye after his disastrous
defeat at the hands of the English at Culludon. Maybe
he had some members of Clan Grant on board as well.
Fortunately, many Scots remained to later create and rise to
give us James Clerk Maxwell, James Dewar and Peter Higgs.] |
| Electricity |
|
"High
Voltage,"
Bon Scott, Malcolm Young and Angus Young, (T.N.T,
1975).
[No transformers or power electronics needed...except for
Angus' guitar.] |
| Songs to Drink To |
| "Ringsend
Rose," Pete St. John, (Ringsend District, Dublin,
lyrics 1970s (?)).
[A young man is smitten by
17-year old "satin-skinned" seamstress Rose Donaghue "all
fresh and new." IMHO, the most lovely of Irish love
songs.] |
| "Anna
Liffey," Peadar Kearney, (The River Liffey, Dublin,
lyrics ca. 1920s).
["We've
got the whiff of ray and chips, and Mary softly sighed; Oh
John won't you come, For a wan and wan Down by the
Liffey side." A couple strolling along the banks of
the river Liffey in Dublin in anticipation of their
impending marriage
and to have "little children and rear them neat and clean to
shout up the Republic...and fight The Saxon Hun."
Kearny is the author of the National Anthem of the Republic
of Ireland.] |
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