PH-705 Superconductivity.

1. Introductory survey: basic phenomenon; lossless currents, energy gap, Meissner effect, critical fields, currents etc.
2.  Phenomenology of superconductivity with applications: a: London equations;  magnetic field penetration into a superconductor. Penetration depth and coherence length; non-local effects. Thermodynamics of superconductors. b: Ginzburg-Landau model . Energy of NS boundary in GL theory. Type I and type II superconductors. Proximity effect, critical field of thin films and other applications of GL equations.
3. Microscopic theory (introductory): Formation of superconducting pairs, pairing energy and energy gap. Introduction to the basics of BCS theory. Flux quantization. Josephson effects AC and DC; SIS, SNS junctions; weak links.
4. Applied superconductivity: Vortices in Type II superconductors, critical fields Hcm, Hc1, Hc2 and Hc3. Structure of a vortex. Vortex pinning. Motion of vortices, flux flow. Bardeen-Stephan model.
5. Advanced topics: a: High Tc superconductors and physics of 2D superconductors; 2D penetration depth and vortices in 2D superconductors.  b: BKT transition: Coulomb gas analogy and Critical behavior of the resistance above the transition and current-voltage characteristics below. c: Fluctuation effects in superconductors.
   

Recommended Books

• Introduction to Superconductivity, by M. Tinkham, publishers Dover Publications (Second Edition) 1996.
• The Physics of Superconductors, Introduction to Fundamentals and Applications, by V.V. Schmidt, publisher Springer Books 1982.
• Superconductivity of Metals and Alloys, by P. G. De Gennes, publishers Westview Press, 1999.
• Special Reading: G. Blatter. “Vortices in high-temperature superconductors”, Rev. Mod. Phys. 66, 1125 (1994).