The number of patent families (in red) and non-patent publications (in blue) about superconductivity by year. Also shown as black vertical lines are the main breakthroughs in the field.
Superconductivity is the phenomenon of certain materials exhibiting zero electrical resistance and the expulsion of magnetic fields below a characteristic temperature. The history of superconductivity began with Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes's discovery of superconductivity in mercury in 1911. Since then, many other superconducting materials have been discovered and the theory of superconductivity has been developed. These subjects remain active areas of study in the field of condensed matter physics.
The study of superconductivity has a fascinating history, with several breakthroughs having dramatically accelerated publication and patenting activity in this field, as shown in the figure on the right and described in details below. Throughout its 100+ year history the number of non-patent publications per year about superconductivity has been a factor of 10 larger than the number of patent families, which is characteristic of a technology, that has not achieved a substantial commercial success (see Technological applications of superconductivity).
With the help of the Van der Waals' equation of state, the critical-point parameters of gases could be accurately predicted from thermodynamic measurements made at much higher temperatures. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was influenced by the work of Van der Waals.[1][2][3]In 1908, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes became the first to make liquid helium and this led directly to his 1911 discovery of superconductivity.Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (right), the discoverer of superconductivity. Paul Ehrenfest, Hendrik Lorentz, Niels Bohr stand to his left.
^Shachtman, Tom: Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999)
^Sengers, Johanna Levelt: How Fluids Unmix: Discoveries by the School of Van der Waals and Kamerlingh Onnes. (Amsterdam : Koninklijke Nerlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, 2002)
^Van Delft, Dirk: Freezing Physics: Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and the Quest for Cold. (Amsterdam: Koninklijke Nerlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, 2008)
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