Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121.
For more information, contact Diego Dalvit.

Thursday, March 12, 2009
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Speaker: Filip Ronning, MPA-10

Technical Host: Wojciech Zurek

TOPIC: Superconductivity: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Abstract
Superconductivity is one of the most remarkable states of matter, which has attracted the fascination of scientists for nearly a century and has the potential to revolutionize future technologies. Many superconductors have been discovered, applications have been developed, and a microscopic theory is known. However, several classes of new materials do not fit easily within the microscopic theory, and we have no good way of predicting the properties of superconducting materials. Even worse, we don’t even understand the normal state above the superconducting transition temperature for the new classes of superconductors (with the highest transition temperatures). In this talk, I will review the basic phenomena of superconductivity, describe the difficulties faced in attempting to design new superconducting materials, and present the prospects for future research. I will attempt to draw heavily from current research being performed in MPA-10.