IBM Honors the 25th Anniversary of High-Temperature Superconductivity
Twenty-five years ago IBM scientists, J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Muller altered the landscape of physics when they observed superconductivity in an oxide material at a temperature 50 percent higher, (-238 deg C, -397 deg F) than what was previously known. This discovery opened an entirely new chapter in the field of physics and earned them the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1987.
Then in 1983 IBM scientists Bednorz and Muller concentrated on oxides which include copper and one or more of the rare earth metals. Their breakthrough idea was that the copper atoms could be made to transport electrons, which interact more strongly with the surrounding crystal than they do in normal electrical conductors. To obtain a chemically stable material, the two scientists added barium to crystals of lanthanum-copper-oxide to produce a ceramic material that eventually became the first successful high-temperature superconductor. Their discovery created a fever of activity with scientists around the world. This activity reached its boiling point at the American Physical Society meeting in New York City, 16-20 March 1987. Nicknamed the “Woodstock of Physics” by some the 2,000 attendees, the marathon session saw more than 50 scientists present their discoveries of newly formulated materials that achieved dramatically higher temperatures than ever before — all based on the discovery by Bednorz and Muller.
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