This award to the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, in cooperation with the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory, is to establish a Science and Technology Center for Superconductivity. The director of the Center is Professor Miles V. Klein of the University of Illinois. The intellectual efforts of the Center are directed into six interconnected research areas. Studies in the theory of superconductivity involve collaboration between those exert in electronic structure calculations, many-body theory, and many- body simulations respectively. Thin films prepared by a variety of chemical and physical methods are compared and used for both studies in fundamental physics and device fabrication. Studies of microstructure address the substructure of superconducting materials, contacts and interfaces and their response to various treatments. The processing group has the goals of producing high temperature superconductors that support high current densities and are environmentally and thermally stable. The synthesis effort undertakes the sample preparation requirements for all Center participants as well as searching for new superconductors and developing novel methods for controlling purity, stoichiometry, and microstructure. Education and outreach programs involve cooperative research with other institutions, workshops, conferences, and extensive educational outreach through the program now in place at Argonne National Laboratory. Contacts with industry include direct collaboration and a technology transfer program.
