History of Superconductor

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1913)

The first superconductor was found by Heike Kamelingh Onnes from Leiden University in 1911. the superconductivity was first observed in mecury when the resistance of the metal suddenly disappeared after he cooled it to the temperature of liquid helium, 4 degree Kelvin (-452F, -269C). Onnes won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1913.

Walter Meissner (1933)

In 1933, Walther Meissner have iscovered that a superconducting material will repel a magnetic field. This phenomenon is known as strong diamagnetism and is today often referred to as the "Meissner effect". The Meissner effect is so strong that a magnet can actually be levitated over a superconductive material

Brian D. Josephson (1962)

Brian D. Josephson is a graduate student at Cambridge University found that electrical current would flow between 2 superconducting materials even when they are separated by a non-superconductor or insulator. he had won a share of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics. This tunneling phenomenon is today known as the Josephson Effect.

K Alex Mueller (1987)

In 1986, K Alex Mueller had found a brittle ceramic compound that superconducted at the highest temperature then known: 30 K. He is a researchers at the IBM Research Laboratory in Rüschlikon, Switzerland.

In 1987, he achieved an incredible 92 K Tc. For the first time a material (today referred to as YBCO) had been found that would superconduct at temperatures warmer than liquid nitrogen - a commonly available coolant. Mueller won the Nobel Prize in 1987.