Course syllabus

Superconducting devices: fundamentals and applications

LP4 VT22 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience - MC2

Location & Schedule

The course starts at 10:00 on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 in the MC2 Lecture room "Luftbryggan A810"

 

 

Please refer to the detailed schedule for exact room for each lecture:

MCC015 Kusrprogram VT4_2022.pdf

 

The meeting will also be streaming by Zoom: https://chalmers.zoom.us/j/69852574189 passcode: MCC015

 

Contact details

Examiners:

Prof. Floriana Lombardi (floriana.lombardi@chalmers.se) tel. +46317723318

Assoc. Prof. Alexei Kalaboukhov (alexei.kalaboukhov@chalmers.se) tel. +46317725477

 

Lecturers:

Prof. Dag Winkler (dag.winkler@chalmers.se) tel. +46317723474

Prof.  Per Delsing (per.delsing@chalmers.se) tel. +46317723317

Assoc. Prof. Thilo Bauch (thilo.bauch@chalmers.se ) tel. +46317723397

Prof. Sergey Kubatkin (sergey.kubatkin@chalmers.se) tel. +46317725475

Assoc. Prof. Andrey Danilov (andrey.danilov@chalmers.se) tel. +46317723470

 

Course purpose

The course is aiming to provide a basic knowledge of the Josephson effect and its applications in superconducting electronics. The course introduces basic concepts and develops the necessary theory for modeling of various superconducting devices.

Course literature:

 

T. Van Duzer, C. W. Turner, “Principles of Superconducting Devices and Circuits”, 2^nd edition, Prentice Hall PTR 1999

Please note that only limited number of books are available for loan from teacher.

 

Course design

The course consists of 15 lectures given by teachers listed above. The main part of the course is dedicated to the physics of Josephson effect. In addition, superconducting resonators and filters, single electron devices, and superconducting qubits will be discussed in details.

There will be 5 home assignments. The deadline for each assignment is 2 weeks after release. 

In addition, there will be one laboratory work dedicated to measurements of weak magnetic signal originating from the human heart - so called MagnetoCardioGraphy (MCG).

 

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

 

Superconductivity is a fascinating phenomenon that allows us to observe quantum mechanical effects at the macroscopic scale. A tremendous importance of superconductivity for fundamental science can be seen from the fact that there are at least 12 Nobel laureates in physics, who obtained the price for research related to superconductivity. Besides being of tremendous interest in themselves and vehicles for development key concepts and methods in theoretical physics, superconductors have found important applications in modern society. Those range from high power applications and strong superconducting magnets used in medicine, diagnostics and particle accelerators; to most sensitive quantum devices capable of measuring about a trillionth part of the Earths magnetic field and a millionth part of the electron charge.

The course is aiming to provide a basic knowledge of the theory of superconductors and the Josephson effect and their applications in cryoelectronics. It introduces a number of basic concepts and develops the necessary theory for modeling superconducting devices.

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan (Links to an external site.)

 

Examination

Total credits: 7.5

The written examination: 2022-06-01 14:00-18:00

The examination consists of 5 problems providing total number of 15 points.  Allowed material: Your choice of calculator and a handwritten A4 page with your own notes. You have to answer to all problems.

All home assignments and lab reports will be valued and can be used in the evaluation of the exam as follow (assuming 75% attendance):

Max 3 points if the result of the exam is < 4

Max 2 points if the result of the exam is > 7