New Superconductors: Advances, Problems, LimitationsReport by Amber TaylorCHME 5699Dr. Laura LewisFinal ReportApril 23, 2014Executive SummaryOne of the most exciting and magical phenomena observed in science today is the levitation of superconductors in the presence of a magnetic field. While fun, this effect is also extremely useful and could combat one of the biggest problems facing the world today: How can we continue to transport goods and people without burning fossil fuels that damage Earth's atmosphere? Better yet, how can we store energy harvested from renewable sources for long periods of time? The answer may be the use of superconductors in combination with powerful magnets. Superconductors currently exist at very low temperatures, generally between 0 and 10 K. If room-temperature superconductors could be repeatedly produced under standard conditions, Earth's energy crisis would be greatly alleviated and a new era of supertechnology would be ushered in. Topic StatementThis report summarizes the advances, problems, and limitations of new high-temperature superconductors. Included are significance, previous research and findings, as well as the most advanced prediction and formulation methods to date. Within the confines of this report, only type 2 superconductors have been considered for simplicity and relevance. Introduction and context Superconductivity was first discovered a century ago, in 1908, by the Dutch physicist Heike Onnes[1] and is defined in classical physics as "perfect conductivity" or exactly zero electrical resistance (figure 1). With the discovery of the Meissner effect in 1933, Fritz and Hein London formulated a new theory of superconductivity in 1935 stating that superconductivity ... at the center of the sheet ... d above in reference to the modulus of elasticity. Methodology and Results All information provided in this report can be accessed on the World Wide Web. Specifically, the following sources provide excellent details on modern superconductor theories and methodologies. There appears to be consensus regarding the importance of the mechanism of HT superconductivity. Conclusions The progress, problems and limitations of high-temperature superconductors have been explored in this report. The theory of superconductors was addressed, as well as their history and most recent discoveries. Finally, current methods for increasing the critical temperature of superconductivity were presented and discussed. It was found that suppressing lattice vibrations, studying Meissner transitions, and controlling grain boundaries can help understand the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity.