»2nd International Workshop "Towards Room Temperature Superconductivity: Superhydrides and More."

In 2006, a different, second international conference called, "Fundamental Problems of High-Temperature Superconductivity" was held in Zvenigorod, Russia, in honor of Professor Vitaly Ginzburg's 90th birthday. Every physicist is familiar with the theory of Ginzburg and Landau, and the superconducting-physics-community still recognizes Ginzburg as one of the leading proponents of high-temperature superconductivity. Unfortunately, because of declining health, Ginzburg was unable to attend; however, he did address the conference with brief remarks, and ultimately wished success to all. No doubts he would have desired the same good fortune for our meeting. 

Moreover, many of Ginzburg's remarks are just as vital today, especially after the discovery of superconductivity in Superhydrides, which is due to the electron-phonon mechanism of pairing. Below, we translate some excerpts from his inspiring address.

To the Participants of the Conference on Superconductivity...

I am involved in the physics of superconductivity already 63 years (since 1943), and have solely one goal: to accelerate the research in that area.

Everybody knows these days that explorations in superconductivity belong to one of the most important directions of fundamental physics. And that there is currently a direct connection of these explorations with the applied physics...

Benefits of practical applications, naturally, are attractive, but they cannot diminish the interest of even the most abstract, as it looks today, scientific problems...

There is complete discordance in contemporary literature [about the mechanism which is responsible for pairing in high-temperature superconductors], though 20 years have passed since the discovery of HTSC. Complete negligence of electron-phonon interaction (EPI) always seemed the most bizarre to me. One of many possible reasons might have been absence of the isotope effect in regards to temperature. However, this can be explained even with the presence of EPI. Importantly, isotopic replacements have influence on some superconducting samples' properties. While the absence of the isotope effect in the presence of EPI is relatively easy to explain, I have no idea how to explain indications of the isotope effect in absence of EPI...

Thus, I think, that for the known HTSC, EPI plays an important role... This circumstance is important from the point of view of obtaining novel HTSC with possibly higher values of temperature. Indeed, one can hope to raise temperature by changing the structure and the lattice of the material. Discovery of superconductivity in MgB2 with temperature = 40 K, undoubtedly caused by EPI, is important for the same reasoning...

It is important that there are no upper limits on the values of temperature... In brief, we are not aware of any results which prohibit the possibility of reaching room-temperature superconductors. It is another story, that such a task may, undoubtedly, be difficult, and even beyond the reach of contemporary, available facilities. That makes it more interesting, to challenge Nature by trying to create room-temperature superconductors...

I wish success to the conference,

-Vitaly Ginzburg, 23 August 2006

Courtesy of Dr. Ivan Bozovic, please click here to read his article, On Ginzburg, Nobel, and atomic-layer engineering of room temperature superconductors.