Advanced Seminar SS 19

Ground-breaking Experiments on Superconductivity

Mo. 14:00-15:00 h in the Seminar Room 202 of the II. Physikalisches Institut, University of Cologne.

About a century ago, H.K. Onnes discovered that the electrical resistivity of Mercury (Hg) drops to zero below 4.2 Kelvin. This new state of matter termed "superconductivity" is a macroscopic quantum state, which has fascinated and inspired physicists from the fundamental point of view and, moreover, it is nowadays widely used in various technical applications. Over the last 100 years, many surprising and often unexpected phenomena have been observed in experimental studies of superconducting materials, which have led to the development of new theoretical concepts. Vice versa, unconventionel effects have been theoretically predicted, which have later been confirmed experimentally. The aim of this Advanced Seminar is to present und discuss various ground-breaking experimental investigations in the field of superconductivity ranging from some very basic phenomena observed in conventional superconductors to recent new discoveries of, e.g., high-Tc superconductors.

Talks