Meissner effect

The Meissner effect (or Meißner–Ochsenfeld effect) is the expulsion of a magnetic field from a
superconductor during its transition to the superconducting state when it is cooled below the
critical temperature. This expulsion will repel a nearby magnet.

Diagram of the Meissner effect.

Magnetic field lines, represented as
arrows, are excluded from a
superconductor when it is below its
critical temperature.

The German physicists Walther Meißner (anglicized Meissner) and Robert Ochsenfeld[1]
discovered this phenomenon in 1933 by measuring the magnetic field distribution outside
superconducting tin and lead samples.[2] The samples, in the presence of an applied magnetic
field, were cooled below their superconducting transition temperature, whereupon the samples
cancelled nearly all interior magnetic fields. They detected this effect only indirectly because the
magnetic flux is conserved by a superconductor: when the interior field decreases, the exterior
field increases. The experiment demonstrated for the first time that superconductors were more
than just perfect conductors and provided a uniquely defining property of the superconductor
state. The ability for the expulsion effect is determined by the nature of equilibrium formed by
the neutralization within the unit cell of a superconductor.

A superconductor with little or no magnetic field within it is said to be in the Meissner state. The
Meissner state breaks down when the applied magnetic field is too strong. Superconductors can
be divided into two classes according to how this breakdown occurs.

In type-I superconductors, superconductivity is abruptly destroyed when the strength of the

applied field rises above a critical value Hc. Depending on the geometry of the sample, one may
obtain an intermediate state[3] consisting of a baroque pattern[4] of regions of normal material
carrying a magnetic field mixed with regions of superconducting material containing no field.

In type-II superconductors, raising the applied field past a critical value Hc1 leads to a mixed
state (also known as the vortex state) in which an increasing amount of magnetic flux
penetrates the material, but there remains no resistance to the electric current as long as the
current is not too large. Some type-II superconductors exhibit a small but finite resistance in the
mixed state due to motion of the flux vortices induced by the Lorentz forces from the current. As
the cores of the vortices are normal electrons, their motion will have dissipation. At a second
critical field strength Hc2, superconductivity is destroyed. The mixed state is caused by vortices
in the electronic superfluid, sometimes called fluxons because the flux carried by these vortices
is quantized.

Most pure elemental superconductors, except niobium and carbon nanotubes, are type I, while
almost all impure and compound superconductors are type II.

Explanation
The Meissner effect was given a phenomenological explanation by the brothers Fritz and Heinz
London, who showed that the electromagnetic free energy in a superconductor is minimized
provided

where H is the magnetic field and λ is the London penetration depth.

This equation, known as the London equation, predicts that the magnetic field in a
superconductor decays exponentially from whatever value it possesses at the surface. This
exclusion of magnetic field is a manifestation of the superdiamagnetism emerged during the
phase transition from conductor to superconductor, for example by reducing the temperature
below critical temperature.

In a weak applied field (less than the critical field that breaks down the superconducting phase),
a superconductor expels nearly all magnetic flux by setting up electric currents near its surface,
as the magnetic field H induces magnetization M within the London penetration depth from the
surface. These surface currents shield the internal bulk of the superconductor from the external
applied field. As the field expulsion, or cancellation, does not change with time, the currents
producing this effect (called persistent currents or screening currents) do not decay with time.

Near the surface, within the London penetration depth, the magnetic field is not completely
canceled. Each superconducting material has its own characteristic penetration depth.

Any perfect conductor will prevent any change to magnetic flux passing through its surface due
to ordinary electromagnetic induction at zero resistance. However, the Meissner effect is distinct
from this: when an ordinary conductor is cooled so that it makes the transition to a
superconducting state in the presence of a constant applied magnetic field, the magnetic flux is
expelled during the transition. This effect cannot be explained by infinite conductivity, but only by
the London equation. The placement and subsequent levitation of a magnet above an already
superconducting material does not demonstrate the Meissner effect, while an initially stationary
magnet later being repelled by a superconductor as it is cooled below its critical temperature
does.

The persisting currents that exist in the superconductor to expel the magnetic field is commonly
misconceived as a result of Lenz's Law or Faraday's Law. A reason this is not the case is that no
change in flux was made to induce the current. Another explanation is that since the
superconductor experiences zero resistance, there cannot be an induced emf in the
superconductor. The persisting current therefore is not a result of Faraday's Law.

Perfect diamagnetism
Superconductors in the Meissner state exhibit perfect diamagnetism, or superdiamagnetism,
meaning that the total magnetic field is very close to zero deep inside them (many penetration
depths from the surface). This means that their volume magnetic susceptibility is = −1.
Diamagnetics are defined by the generation of a spontaneous magnetization of a material which
directly opposes the direction of an applied field. However, the fundamental origins of
diamagnetism in superconductors and normal materials are very different. In normal materials
diamagnetism arises as a direct result of the orbital spin of electrons about the nuclei of an
atom induced electromagnetically by the application of an applied field. In superconductors the
illusion of perfect diamagnetism arises from persistent screening currents which flow to oppose
the applied field (the Meissner effect); not solely the orbital spin.

Consequences
The discovery of the Meissner effect led to the phenomenological theory of superconductivity by
Fritz and Heinz London in 1935. This theory explained resistanceless transport and the Meissner
effect, and allowed the first theoretical predictions for superconductivity to be made. However,
this theory only explained experimental observations—it did not allow the microscopic origins of
the superconducting properties to be identified. This was done successfully by the BCS theory in
1957, from which the penetration depth and the Meissner effect result.[5]
A tin cylinder— T = 4.2 K, B =
in a Dewar 8 mT (80 G).
flask filled with Tin is in the
liquid helium— normally
has been conducting
placed state. The
between the compass
poles of an needles
electromagnet. indicate that
The magnetic magnetic flux
field is about 8 permeates the
millitesla (80 cylinder.
G).
The cylinder
has been
cooled from
4.2 K to 1.6 K.
The current in
the
electromagnet
has been kept
constant, but
the tin became
superconducti
ng at about
 3 K. Magnetic
flux has been
expelled from
the cylinder
(the Meissner
effect).

Paradigm for the Higgs

mechanism
The Meissner superconductivity effect serves as an important paradigm for the generation
mechanism of a mass M (i.e., a reciprocal range, where h is the Planck
constant and c is the speed of light) for a gauge field. In fact, this analogy is an abelian example
±
for the Higgs mechanism,[6] which generates the masses of the electroweak W and Z gauge
particles in high-energy physics. The length is identical with the London penetration depth in
[7][8]
the theory of superconductivity.

See also

Flux pinning Physics

portal
 Silsbee effect Science
portal
Superfluid

References

1. "Meissner effect | physics" (https://www.bri

tannica.com/science/Meissner-effect) .
Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 22 April
2017.

2. Meissner, W.; Ochsenfeld, R. (1933). "Ein

neuer Effekt bei Eintritt der
Supraleitfähigkeit". Naturwissenschaften.
21 (44): 787–788.
Bibcode:1933NW.....21..787M (https://ui.ad
sabs.harvard.edu/abs/1933NW.....21..787
M) . doi:10.1007/BF01504252 (https://doi.
org/10.1007%2FBF01504252) .
 S2CID 37842752 (https://api.semanticscho
lar.org/CorpusID:37842752) .

3. Landau, L. D.; Lifschitz, E. M. (1984).

Electrodynamics of Continuous Media.
Course of Theoretical Physics. Vol. 8
(2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 0-
7506-2634-8.

4. Callaway, D. J. E. (1990). "On the

remarkable structure of the
superconducting intermediate state".
Nuclear Physics B. 344 (3): 627–645.
Bibcode:1990NuPhB.344..627C (https://ui.a
dsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1990NuPhB.344..6
27C) . doi:10.1016/0550-3213(90)90672-Z
(https://doi.org/10.1016%2F0550-3213%28
90%2990672-Z) .
5. Bardeen, J.; Cooper, L. N.; Schrieffer, J. R.
(1957). "Theory of superconductivity" (http
s://doi.org/10.1103%2Fphysrev.106.162) .
Physical Review. 106 (1175): 162–164.
Bibcode:1957PhRv..106..162B (https://ui.ad
sabs.harvard.edu/abs/1957PhRv..106..162
B) . doi:10.1103/physrev.106.162 (https://d
oi.org/10.1103%2Fphysrev.106.162) .

6. Higgs, P. W. (1966). "Spontaneous

symmetry breakdown without massless
bosons" (https://doi.org/10.1103%2FPhysR
ev.145.1156) . Physical Review. 145 (4):
1156–1163. Bibcode:1966PhRv..145.1156H
(https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1966Ph
Rv..145.1156H) .
doi:10.1103/PhysRev.145.1156 (https://doi.
org/10.1103%2FPhysRev.145.1156) .
7. Wilczek, F. (2000). "The recent excitement
in high-density QCD". Nuclear Physics A.
663: 257–271. arXiv:hep-ph/9908480 (http
s://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/9908480) .
Bibcode:2000NuPhA.663..257W (https://ui.
adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000NuPhA.663..
257W) . doi:10.1016/S0375-
9474(99)00601-6 (https://doi.org/10.1016%
2FS0375-9474%2899%2900601-6) .
S2CID 119354272 (https://api.semanticsch
olar.org/CorpusID:119354272) .

8. Weinberg, S. (1986). "Superconductivity for

particular theorists" (https://doi.org/10.114
3%2FPTPS.86.43) . Progress of Theoretical
Physics Supplement. 86: 43–53.
Bibcode:1986PThPS..86...43W (https://ui.a
dsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1986PThPS..86...4
 3W) . doi:10.1143/PTPS.86.43 (https://doi.
org/10.1143%2FPTPS.86.43) .

Further reading

Einstein, A. (1922). "Theoretical remark

on the superconductivity of metals".
arXiv:physics/0510251 (https://arxiv.or
g/abs/physics/0510251) .
London, F. W. (1960). "Macroscopic
Theory of Superconductivity".
Superfluids. Structure of matter series.
Vol. 1 (Revised 2nd ed.). Dover.
ISBN 978-0-486-60044-4. By the man
who explained the Meissner effect.
pp. 34–37 gives a technical discussion
of the Meissner effect for a
superconducting sphere.
Saslow, W. M. (2002). Electricity,
Magnetism, and Light. Academic.
ISBN 978-0-12-619455-5. pp. 486–489
gives a simple mathematical discussion
of the surface currents responsible for
the Meissner effect, in the case of a long
magnet levitated above a
superconducting plane.
Tinkham, M. (2004). Introduction to
Superconductivity. Dover Books on
Physics (2nd ed.). Dover. ISBN 978-0-
486-43503-9. A good technical
reference.
External links

The Meissner effect - Wikimedia

Commons
The Feynman Lectures
has media
on Physics (https://ww related to
Meissner
w.feynmanlectures.calt
effect.
ech.edu/III_21.html#Ch
21-S6)
Meissner Effect (Science from scratch)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44
mVZdnR6Yc) Short video from Imperial
College London about the Meissner
effect and levitating trains of the future.
Introduction to superconductivity (http
s://web.archive.org/web/201601251752
 55/http://alfredleitner.com/superconduc
tors.html) Video about Type 1
Superconductors: R = 0/Transition
temperatures/B is a state
variable/Meissner effect/Energy gap
(Giaever)/BCS model.
Meissner Effect (Hyperphysics) (http://h
yperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/soli
ds/meis.html)
Historical Background of the Meissner
Effect (https://web.archive.org/web/201
40828152921/http://web.ornl.gov/info/r
eports/m/ornlm3063r1/pt2.html)

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