Subsections
[Cr:4, Lc:3, Tt:1, Lb:0]
Knowledge of the content of PHY302, PHY304 and PHY402 is essential
to follow this course.
- Review of quantum theory of solids: Electrons in a periodic lattice potential; Metals and
insulators in band theory; Correlation effects; Fermi liquid theory.
- Second quantization: Introduction to the method of second quantisation as a framework
for the formulation of quantum many-body systems.
- Bose superfluids: The superfluid phenomena, Landau’s two-fluid model, second sound.
- Basic phenomenology of superconductors (charged superfluids): The zero resistance state;
Meissner effect; London equations; Coherence length, penetration depth, critical magnetic
field and critcal current; Type I and type II superconductors; Thermodynamics of supercon-
ductors; The intermediate state in type I and the vortex state in type II superconductors.
- Ginzburg-Landau theory: Spatially uniform order parameter, spatial dependence of order
parameters, Anderson-Higgs mechanism, Understanding type-I and type-II superconduc-
tors using Ginzburg-Landau theory.
- Microscopic theory of superconductivity: Cooper’s theorem, Cooper pairs, BCS theory of
superconductivity. Conventional and unconventional superconductors.
- High-Tc superconductors: The cuprates, the pnictides, the chalcogenides, Superconductiv-
ity at very high pressure, Room temperature superconductivity, Highfield superconducting
magnets, the topological superconductors and the Majorana fermions.
- Exotic pairing symmetries: Anisotropic interactions and anisotropic gaps, Phasesensitive
measurement techniques for determination of order parameter symmetry, triplet pairing in
He3.
- Superconducting devices: dc and ac Josephson effect; SQUIDs; Superconducting qubits,
Majorana wires and devices.
- A. C. Rose-Innes, Introduction to superconductivity, Dover Publications; Second Edition
(2004)
- M. Tinkham, Introduction to superconductivity, McGraw-Hill, New York. (1996)
- P. G. de Gennes, Superconductivity of metals and alloys, W. A. Benjamin, New York.
(1966)
- A. A. Abrikosov, Fundamentals of theory of metals, North Holland, Amsterdam. (1998)
- L. D. Landau & E. M. Lifshitz, Statistical physics, part 2: Theory of the condensed state,
by E. M. Lifshitz & L. P. Pitaevskii. Pergamon, Oxford. (1980)
