Università Roma Tre

1 Introduction to Superconductivity.
Zero resistance, persistent currents. Persistent Current Switch. Meissner effect.
Type-II and type-II superconductors. Critical fields. Fluxoid quantization. London equations.

2 Superconducting materials.
Elements. Alloys and binary compounds. Cuprates. Other superconductors.

3 Basics of the microscopic theory.
Cooper pairs, BCS coherence length, BCS fundamental state. Quasiparticles. Effects of nonzero temperature. Experimental evidences: isotopic effect, gap in the electromagnetic absorption. Depairing current.

4 Josephson effect.
Feynmann derivation. RCSJ model. dc Josephson effect. Shapiro steps. Voltage standard. SQUID; effect of a magnetic field, critical current and quantum interference. Weak screening. Applications.

5 Transport.
Two-fluid model. ac conductivity. Surface impedance. Applications: delay lines; filters; accelerating cavities.

6 Thermodynamics of the superconducting state.
Gibbs free energy. Condensation energy. Ginzburg-Landau theory. Characteristic lengths. Surface energy: type-II superconductivity.

7 Type-II superconductivity..
Fluxons or vortices. Abrikosov lattice. Lower and upper critical fields. Fluxon motion. Pinning. Irreversibility. Bean model. Flux-flow, flux-creep, TAFF.

8 Further topics.
Anisotropic superconductors. Magnetic levitation. Power applications, cables, magnets for the nuclear fusion plants.

THIS IS A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF THE TEXTBOOKS WHENCE THE TOPICS ARE TAKEN. ON THE WEBSITE THE SPECIFIC CHAPTERS/PARAGRAPHS ARE LISTED. SLIDES AND SUMMARY PAPERS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE WEBSITE.
WEBSITE (AT THE TIME OF WRITING): http://webusers.fis.uniroma3.it/

[BK]
W. Buckel, R. Kleiner, "Superconductivity - Fundamentals and Applications", Wiley

[EH]
C. Enss, S. Hunklinger, "Low-Temperature Physics", Springer

[FS]
K. Fossheim, A. Sudbø, "Superconductivity - Physics and applications", John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.

[IW]
Iwasa, "Case Studies in Superconducting Magnets", 2nd Edition, Springer

[OD]
T.P. Orlando, K.A. Delin, "Foundations of Applied Superconductivity", Addison Wesley
si vedano anche le slide del corso "Applied Superconductivity" del MIT (Open CourseWare)

[OPe]
F. J. Owens, Ch. P. Poole, Jr., "Electromagnetic Absorption in the Copper Oxide Superconductors", Springer