Oystein Fischer

Title

100 years of superconductivity: Stunning results and great challenges for the future

Abstract

When Heike Kamerlingh Onnes opened the road to very low temperatures and together with his collaborator Gilles Holst found superconductivity in 1911 he was aware that he had discovered something important. But he certainly could not suspect that his discovery would fill the whole coming century with numerous stunning discoveries, with deep and elegant theories and large scale applications in domains as different as particle physics (then at its very beginning), energy production with fusion (then not yet discovered or even suspected), magnetic resonance imaging in medicine, levitating high speed trains and telecommunications (then at its very beginning). When on April 8 this year we enter the second century of superconductivity we are carrying with us some immense scientific questions and societal challenges: The elaboration of a commonly accepted theory of superconductivity in cuprates, discovered experimentally by J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Müller 25 years ago, is one great challenge in physics. During its first century of existence superconductivity has already led to important applications and it has the potential to further profoundly impact our society, when the many applications being elaborated today come into practical use. New superconducting compounds are being uncovered year after year. Superconductivity at room temperature is no more an impossible long-term vision and we are certainly far from having uncovered all the richness superconductivity has in store for science and society.