Superconductors, particularly low temperature liquid helium superconductors, are critical in producing high field magnets for various applications such as space exploration and NMR imaging. They enable efficient magnetic shielding and energy storage systems, with a round-trip efficiency greater than 95%, and are also fundamental in developing advanced technologies like maglev trains and quantum computers. Their unique properties, such as near-zero resistance, facilitate the creation of sensitive devices and high-performance filters in electronic applications.

2. 1) Low temperature liquid helium
superconductors have been used
to fabricate high field magnets
and some electronic and radio
frequency devices.

3. Superconducting Magnets
 We know that an electric current in a
wire creates a magnetic field around the
wire. The strength of the magnetic field
increases as the current in the wire
increases. Since SCs can carry large
currents without energy loss, they are
well suited for making strong magnets

4. AMS-02: With a diameter of nearly 3 m and a
cold mass approaching 2 tonnes, AMS-02 will be
the first large superconducting magnet to be
launched into space. The 14 coils generate
fields up to 7 T and are indirectly cooled to 1.8 K
by 2500 liters of superfluid helium.
7 T horizontal bore
superconducting magnet
For more details please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnet

5. Electronic & Radio Frequency Devices
 In electronics industry, ultra-high-performance
filters are now being built. Since
superconducting wire has near zero
resistance, even at high frequencies, many
more filter stages can be employed to achieve
a desired frequency response. This translates
into an ability to pass desired frequencies and
block undesirable frequencies in high-
congestion radio frequency applications such
as cellular telephone systems.

6. 2) The superconducting magnets
have been employed in NMR
spectrometers and NMR imaging
is used in medical diagnostics.

7. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
(NMR) Spectrometers
 NMR spectrometer technology uses
superconducting wires cooled with cryogens
(liquid helium & liquid nitrogen) to generate a
magnetic field. NMR spectrometers provide
the most homogenous magnetic fields and the
greatest spectral resolution. NMR
spectroscopy can be used for chemical
analysis, reaction monitoring, and quality
assurance/quality control experiments.
Higher-field instruments enable unparalleled
resolution for structure
determination, particularly for complex
molecules.

8. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (NMRI)
 On applying a strong superconductor
derived magnetic field into the
body, hydrogen atoms that exist in the
body's water and fat molecules are
forced to accept energy from the
magnetic field. They then release this
energy at a frequency that can be
detected and displayed graphically by a
computer.

9. An Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI) Scanner.
(Simply called as MRI Scanner)

10. 3) Superconductors are used for
effective magnetic shielding.

11. Magnetic Shield
 When you place a superconductor near
a magnet, the magnetic field gets
repelled by the superconductor because
it does not allow the field to penetrate its
surface (Meissner Effect).
Normal Conductor Superconductor

12. 4) Superconductors are used as
magnetic energy storage.

13. Superconducting Magnetic
Energy Storage (SMES)
 SMES systems store energy in the magnetic field
created by the flow of direct current in
a superconducting coil.
 Once the superconducting coil is charged, the
current will not decay and the magnetic energy
can be stored indefinitely.
 The stored energy can be released back to the
network by discharging the coil.
 SMES loses the least amount of electricity in the
energy storage process compared to other
methods of storing energy. i.e. the SMES systems
are highly efficient; the round-trip efficiency is
greater than 95%.

14. The world’s largest superconducting magnetic energy storage system:
This system counters sudden drops in voltage (line-drops) that result from lightning
strikes and other natural phenomena. The 10,000-kW superconducting magnetic
energy storage system installed at the Kameyama (a City in Japan) Plant can
generate high voltage in an instant and counter the effects of line-drops.

15. 5) Superconductors have been
used to produce various devices
based on superconducting
quantum effects such as SQUIDS
and Josephson devices

16. Superconducting Quantum
Interference Device (SQUID)
 A SQUID is a very sensitive
magnetometer used to measure extreme
low magnetic fields.
 SQUIDs are sensitive enough to
measure fields as low as 5×10−18 T
(i.e. can detect a change of energy as much
as 100 billion times weaker than the
electromagnetic energy that moves a compass
needle, such as subtle changes in the human
body's electromagnetic energy field)

17. The inner workings of an early SQUID

18. Josephson Devices
 In 1962 Brian D. Josephson predicted that
electrical current would flow between two
superconducting materials, even when they
are separated by a non-superconductor or
insulator. His prediction was later confirmed
and won him a share of the 1973 Nobel Prize
in Physics. This tunneling phenomenon is
today known as the "Josephson effect“
 SQUIDs work based on the Josephson effect.
Devices that work based on the principle of
Josephson effect are called Josephson
Devices.

19. 6) For high speed magnetic trains
and ship drive system
superconductors are used.

20. MagLev Trains
 The Maglev (derived from Magnetic
Levitation) train system works by utilizing
magnetized coils running along a track that
attract and repel large superconducting
magnets in the train’s undercarriage and
allow it to levitate almost 4 inches off the
ground. Power supplied to the coils in the
guideway then creates polarizing forces
that pull and push the train along. As the
only resistance is air,

21. Working of Maglev Trains
 The maglev train is equipped with several
superconductors, while a series of
electromagnetic coils run along the length of
the track. When the train approaches these
coils, the superconductors induce a current in
them that works to both levitate the train
several centimeters above the track and to
center it between the guide rails.
 A moving magnetic field can hence produce
inducted currents that, in reaction, will produce
a second magnetic field interacting with the
first one. It is this force that lifts the Maglev.

22. Maglev propulsion along a track that attract and repel
large superconducting magnets

23. Advantages of using
Superconductors in Maglev Trains
 Conventional electromagnets waste much of the
electrical energy as heat, they would have to be
physically much larger than superconducting
magnets.
 The beauty of maglevs is that they travel on air. The
consequent elimination of friction means much
greater efficiency: high speed (>500kmph) and less
wear and tear (i.e. less maintenance). Just as
electrons move more efficiently through a
superconducting wire because there is no
resistance, so, too, does a maglev travel more
efficiently than a regular train because there is no
friction between the wheels and the track, thanks to
the Meissner Effect.

24. JR–Maglev, or SCMaglev (Super-Conducting Maglev) – Japan Railways

25. A maglev train is coming out of the Pudong International Airport, China

26. 7) Superconductors are used in
computers and information
processing.

27. Computing and Information
Processing
 Superconductivity could even be used to build
a quantum computer, enabling massively parallel
processing (to reach speed at the rates of 100 GHz)
 Quantum computers are different from digital
computers based on transistors. Whereas digital
computers require data to be encoded into binary digits
(bits), quantum computation uses quantum properties
to represent data and perform operations on these
data.
 Quantum Processors make use of superconducting
qubit (Quantum Bits) architecture.