Discovery
BSCCO as a new class of superconductor was discovered by Maeda and coworkers at the National Research Institute for Metals in Japan, though at the time they were unable to determine its precise composition and structure. Almost immediately several groups, and most notably Subramanian et al at Dupont and Cava et al at AT&T Bell Labs, identified Bi-2212. The n=3 member proved quite elusive and was not identified until a month or so later by Tallon et al in a government research lab in New Zealand. There have been only minor improvements to these materials since. A key early development was to replace about 15% of the Bi by Pb, which greatly accelerated the formation and quality of Bi-2223.
Read more about this topic: Bismuth Strontium Calcium Copper Oxide
Famous quotes containing the word discovery:
“It was one of those evenings when men feel that truth, goodness and beauty are one. In the morning, when they commit their discovery to paper, when others read it written there, it looks wholly ridiculous.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“That the discovery of this great truth, which lies so near and obvious to the mind, should be attained to by the reason of so very few, is a sad instance of the stupidity and inattention of men, who, though they are surrounded with such clear manifestations of the Deity, are yet so little affected by them, that they seem as it were blinded with excess of light.”
—George Berkeley (1685–1753)