Download I. Flux Pinning

Quantum Locking
(Flux Pinning)
Tobiah Dustin Spurlock
Beaufort, South Carolina
[email protected]
FLUX PINNING
Flux pinning is the phenomenon where a
superconductor is pinned in space above a
magnet. The superconductor must be a typeII superconductor due to the fact that type-I
superconductors cannot be penetrated by
magnetic fields. The act of magnetic
penetration is what makes flux pinning
possible. At higher temperatures the
superconductor allows magnetic flux to
enter in quantized packets surrounded by a
superconducting current vortex(Wiki- Flux
Pinning). The places where these packets
pass through the superconductor are known
as flux tubes. At low temperatures these
flux tubes are forced to remain in one place
with no motion, causing the superconductor
to become locked in place.
I.
order to create a superconductor, a conducting
material must be cooled beneath its critical
temperature. Once a conductor reaches its
critical temperature, all resistance vanishes and
the
conductor
transitions
into
a
superconductor. The graph below shows the
immediate loss of resistance a superconductive
material undergoes when it reaches a certain
temperature.
FLUX TUBES
A flux tube is a generally cylindrical region
of space containing a magnetic field. Flux
tubes can easily be created using a
superconductor’s characteristics of magnetic
repulsion. By placing a superconductor over a
magnet, flux tubes are created through the
minute cracks in the superconductor for the
magnetic flux lines to pass through. During
quantum locking these flux tubes are locked
into place to achieve the lowest state of
energy. By locking these flux lines into place
in the superconductor, the superconductor
essentially locks itself into place above the
magnet. Since it is being locked into place,
neither
attracted
nor
repelled,
the
superconductor is then free to move about as
III.
II.
SUPERCONDUCTORS
What is a super
conductor?
It is substance capable of becoming
superconducting
at
sufficiently
low
temperatures.
A.
What does this
mean?
.A superconductor is classified as such if it
satisfies two conditions. The first condition
that makes a superconductor is its
conductivity. In order for it to be a
superconductor, it must be able to conduct
electricity with no loss of energy. A
superconductor must also repel magnetism. In
B.
long as the magnetic field is constant
throughout the superconductor’s path.
CAPABILITIES
A superconductor that has become locked
has amazing capabilities. When placed over a
magnetic field of 350 Oe, a three inch disk that
is half a micron thick can support over 70,000
times its own weight. If you upped that to two
millimeters thick, it would be able to support
over 1000 kg, or a small car. This amazing feat
is attainable because of the immense amount
of flux tubes that are created in the
superconductor. In the superconductor
previously mentioned, three inches across,
there are over one hundred billion flux tubes
that are created when placed over a magnet.
Locking all these flux lines into place locks the
superconductor into place above the magnet
with immense strength.
IV.
Advantages
The advantages with flux pinning have yet
to be fully discovered but its potential is easy
to see. By Quantum locking frictionless joints
can be created which could amount to huge
already exist but require huge amounts of
energy to sustain, such as the MAGLEV train,
could then be replaced by a more stable energy
efficient system. The current frictionless joint
that the MAGLEV system uses attains its
levitation through either repulsion or
attraction. Although this system has been put
into effect and proven efficient, having a train
that is locked into place rather than having
constant pressure would prove much safer.
Another advantage of quantum locking over
electromagnets is the power consumption
required to keep a electromagnet magnetizing.
Using quantum locking rather than
electromagnetism would cut the cost
dramatically.
A.
Disadvantages
Like the advantages, the disadvantages are
still being discovered as research is continually
done on the subject. The major disadvantage
and problem facing physicist and scientist
B.
today is that a superconductor can only be
created under extreme temperatures. A
conductor must be cooled to extremely low
temperatures before the resistance fades and it
begins magnetic repulsion. When super
conductors were first discovered, they could
only be created using liquid helium to cool the
resistor to 4 degrees Kelvin. In 1986
researchers discover that certain ceramic
materials reached their critical temperatures at
a much higher temperature, about 90 degrees
Kelvin. This allows them to be created using
liquid nitrogen which is 70 degrees Kelvin and
is much easier to come by for researchers,
since then much more has been learned about
them. These new high-temp superconductors
have already reduced the disadvantages of
superconductors and it may happen again,
allowing for superconductors to become a
more realistic source of levitation.
V. Engineering Applications
The uses for quantum locking on
designs are endless. If a reliable, stable, safe
way to create superconductors is discovered,
anything from hover-boards to floating cars is
possible. Since superconductors have no
electrical resistance, they have already found
uses in machines such as particle accelerators,
medical MRI machines, and power cables.
Energy storage is being enhanced by the
superconductor’s ability to maintain it for
infinite amounts of time with no energy loss.
These advancements are setting up to create a
flawless system that seems to break the rules
of physics. If using a superconductor as a
cable power can be transferred to a
superconductor with no energy loss. That
superconductor then stores the energy for an
indefinite amount of time while retaining 100
% of the energy that came into the system. If
this
is
transferred
again
using a
superconductor, the system will have achieved
100% efficiency since it has lost no power
throughout the process, a thing once thought
impossible till now. The advancement in
superconductors is the key to advancements in
quantum locking. By making them more
stable and less reliant on the temperature,
quantum locking can become a common thing
with endless engineering applications.
REFERENCES
[1]http://www.ted.com/talks/boaz_almog_levitates_a_su
perconductor.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercon
ductivity
[2]http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/ene
rgy/superconductivity.htm
[3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconductivity
http://www.ted.com/talks/boaz_almog_levitates_a_supe
rconductor.html
[4]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Locking