Course syllabus

The following topics are covered in the course

• Basic physical properties of superconductors (e.g. zero resistivity, Meissner effect, specific heat, isotope effect)

• An introduction to superconducting materials and cooling techniques

• London theory for superconductors

• Thermodynamics of superconductors

• Type-I and type-II superconductors

• Vortices in type-II superconductors, vortex dynamics

• Bean critical state model, energy losses

• Superconducting wires and magnet design

• Large scale and power applications (e.g. superconducting magnets, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), accelerators, energy storage and transmission, Maglev trains)

• Josephson junctions

• Quantum interference devices (SQUID:s), short and long Josephson junctions

• Electronics applications (e.g. SQUID instruments, biomagnetism, measurement normals)

• Ginzburg-Landau theory for superconductors

• Introduction to BCS theory