Prepare for your experiments

Description of the experiments

Lecture notes for Superconductivity I

The lab comprises three tasks: magnetization measurement, heat capacity measurement, and NMR measurement on a superconductor

Samples: elemental Nb, elemental Pb, YBCO

Magnetization

We will use the MPMS instrument equipped with the superconducting magnet and SQUID magnetometer. In this experiment, you will:

learn operation of the MPMS system, a common tool in low-temperature labs
observe Meissner effect
determine critical fields
map out field-temperature phase diagram of a superconductor

Heat capacity

We will use the PPMS instrument equipped with the superconducting magnet and multi-purpose experimental probes (heat capacity, resistivity, Hall effect, etc). In this experiment, you will:

learn operation of the PPMS system, another common tool in low-temperature labs
get practical experience with heat capacity measurements using relaxation method
observe thermodynamic signatures of the superconducting transition
determine critical fields
determine the Sommerfeld coefficient

Nuclear magnetic resonance

We will use one of the NMR spectrometers available at the faculty. In this experiment, you will:

perform and analyze results of an NMR measurement
determine the critical temperature of a superconductor using NMR
observe differences between conventional and unconventional superconductors
estimate the superconducting gap