Conventional high temperature superconductivity: from A15 to MgB2 to superhydrides
Igor Mazin
Professor of Practice in Advanced Studies in Theoretical Physics (Condensed Matter Theory)
George Mason University
I will review in a rather popular-science way, mostly for the benefits of the younger generation, the history of the half-century long quest for the room-temperature superconductivity, concentrating on the conventional electron-phonon mechanism. I will outline several stages, characterized by different paradigms, which can be tagged in a Potterian way thus:
(1) A-15 and the concept of an upper bound on Tc
(2) V.L. Ginzburg and the concept of a negative dielectric function
(3) MgB2 and the concept of doped covalent bonds
(4) H3S and the concept of MgB2 on steroids
(5) superhydrides and the concept of artificially stabilized metal hydrogen
Hosted by Prof. Ghimire