This award supports a cooperative research project on high-temperature superconductors to be conducted by Prof. Herman Fink of the University of California at Davis and two researchers at the Atomic Center in Bariloche, Argentina: Dr. Arturo Lopez-Davalos, Solid State Theory Group, and Dr. Francisco De La Cruz of the Low Temperature Laboratory. They will investigate the properties of high-temperature superconductors and the magnetic and critical current properties of superconducting micronetworks. On the theoretical side, they will study the effect of the inclusion of a small coherence length (coherent electron pairs are the basis for superconductivity) in the fundamental Ginzburg-Landau equations. Such theoretical interpretation is urgently needed in view of the explosion in experimental results produced world-wide since the discovery of nitrogen-temperature superconductivity. In addition, they will study the magnetic properties and the critical currents (the most severe limitation of these materials is low critical current) of ladder networks and square lattice arrays. The work on superconductivity at Bariloche is of high quality and the collaboration with Prof. Fink will strengthen that effort. The Argentinian group brings vast experience in the properties of superconductors and has made many contributions to the literature in this field. Previous collaborative work has been highly productive.
