Technological applications of superconductivity

Superconductors function with almost no electrical resistance, making them useful for a variety of rapidly advancing technological applications. One common application is superconducting electromagnets, which utilize a series of superconducting coils to generate a magnetic field. Additionally, the electric power transmission system takes advantage of the low electrical resistance of superconductors to improve efficiency when transferring and storing electrical energy.

Technological applications of superconductivity include:

• powerful superconducting electromagnets used in maglev trains, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) machines, magnetic confinement fusion reactors (e.g. tokamaks), and the beam-steering and focusing magnets used in particle accelerators
• high sensitivity particle detectors, including the transition edge sensor, the superconducting bolometer, the superconducting tunnel junction detector, the kinetic inductance detector, and the superconducting nanowire single-photon detector
• electric motors and generators
• railgun and coilgun magnets
• fast fault current limiters
• low-loss power cables
• the production of sensitive magnetometers based on SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices)
• fast digital circuits (including those based on Josephson junctions and rapid single flux quantum technology),
• RF and microwave filters (e.g., for mobile phone base stations, as well as military ultra-sensitive/selective receivers)