Magnesium diboride heralds superconductivity revival

• Book ID: 104415279
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 931 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1369-7021
• DOI: 10.1016/s1369-7021(01)80002-x

✦ Synopsis

Superconductivity has long held an unfulfilled promise for l:rictionlese' electricity transfer in practical applications likJe transmission lines. The discovery of 'high critical temperature' ceramic supe~ conductors raised hopes in the late 1980s, but so far still without substantial commercial benefit. Now a cheap, commonly available compound -and more surprisingly an intermetallic -magnesium diboride (MgB2), has been shown by Japanese researchers to become superconducting at a critical temperature of 39K. But it ian~ just the critical temperature, Jun Akimitsu reported in January, that is fuelling the flurry of excitement among researchers it's the combination of