Meet the scientists!

I’m working with superconducting materials. By examination of vortex lattice, I’m trying to better understand properties of superconductors. 

Few new terms? No worries, let’s start from beginning.. Superconductors, where you may seen them:

• - superfast levitation train

• - superconducting magnetic energy storage  (SMES)

• - more efficiency electricity network so enviromental-friendly.  Power cables without any looses are already used not only at LHC  but also to powered some cities like Detroit or Copenhagen (partially)

• - and that’re just few possible places where you can find superconductors.

But superconductors are still not perfect and causing few problems to be widely used so my research are on superconducting materials to better understand them and then engineer can use new knowledge to improve devices mention above and make much more.

Some materials around you might be superconductors and you even don’t notice. Certain materials became superconductors below specific temperature Tc. Above this temperature there are mostly solid and there is nothing original about them. Any aluminium bit around you? Yes, it’s a superconductor but below 1.2  K  (reminder: 1K=  273.16 C).  That’s really cold, so lots of liquid nitrogen and helium in use at my work.

What is essential to superconductivity is creation of Cooper pairs (two electron coming together – which is slightly unusual – as electrons normally don’t “like” to be close to each other and those electrons pairs can exists in different states. I’m particularly interest when and why  they are in certain type. And I can get my answer by observations and calculations of magnetic field behaviour inside superconductors.

Part of big superconducting family doesn’t allow magnetic field inside the material. But at some superconductors magnetic field can exist inside superconductor forming vortex lattice. You can think about vortex  as a tornado (same shape) but at much more smaller scale. I can observe vortex by using muons (which are very sensitive for magnetic field) or neutrons.

Apart from being a science adicted also can’t leave without mountains (so far they are only two adiction that i recognize in myself or maybe coffe and chocolate also?;)

And at any time when I can alow myself for a break, once a few months I’m going for weekend to Poland to see my family or friends in Cracow – anybody been in Cracow? I’ve done my undergrads there so now it preety well:) But at most of my breaks I’m runing away to the mountains.  British one like Lake, Snowdonia, Yorkshire, Highlands.. Have you ever been on top of Snowdon or Helvellyn or An Gearanach, so much fun:) been there with my uni club Warwick Mountains . Also been in the Alps this summer and already know how much I want to came back.

The same like above, on slightly different way;)