History of Superconductivity - Commercial Activity

Commercial Activity

In 1962, the first commercial superconducting wire, a niobium-titanium alloy, was developed by researchers at Westinghouse.

In the same year, Josephson made the important theoretical prediction that a supercurrent can flow between two pieces of superconductor separated by a thin layer of insulator. This phenomenon, now called the Josephson effect, is exploited by superconducting devices such as SQUIDs. It is used in the most accurate available measurements of the magnetic flux quantum h/2e, and thus (coupled with the quantum Hall resistivity) for Planck's constant h. Josephson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this work in 1973.

In 1973 Nb₃Ge found to have T_c of 23 K which remained the highest ambient-pressure T_c until the discovery of the cuprate high temperature superconductors in 1986 (see below).