Unit information: Core Lectures in 2025/26

Unit name	Core Lectures
Unit code	PHYSM0066
Credit points	40
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Professor. Carrington
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	none
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	none
Units you may not take alongside this one	none
School/department	School of Physics
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Unit Information

Why is this unit important?

This unit is a series of lectures which will lead students through the many aspects of superconductivity research from the fundamental theory, via the science of material design, to the applications. The industrial and facility partners of the Superconductivity-CDT will enrich these courses by delivering lectures that demonstrate real-world applications of superconducting technologies within their organizations. The overarching goal is to provide students with a holistic perspective on the subject, enabling them to comprehend and engage with literature and scientists beyond the scope of their specific research projects.

How does this unit fit into your programme of study?

This is a mandatory unit

Your learning on this unit

An overview of content

The lectures will follow a modular structure, comprising five lectures per course, and students will be required to complete 8 modules, chosen out of a list of around 13 options. You will be guided in your choice by your PhD supervisor in order to best match with your research project. The list may vary year-on-year. An example list is as follows:

1. Fundamental Physics of Conventional Superconductivity. Electromagnetic and thermodynamic properties. BCS theory and strong coupling.
2. Fundamental Physics of Unconventional Superconductivity. High temperature cuprates / iron based, heavy fermions, spin fluctuation pairing and alternatives.
3. Materials design for large scale applications. Materials selection, manufacturing, control of microstructure in technological superconductors, joints, wires/tapes and bulks, key properties and future prospects for commercial products and engineering sectors.
4. High field magnet applications of superconductors. Magnet design considerations including quench protection, cable design etc, magnets for fusion, MRI/NMR; accelerators / high energy Physics, high field research magnets, proton therapy.
5. Energy, power, and transport applications of superconductors. AC loss, transmission cables, motors and generators for applications including wind turbines, electric aircraft, ship propulsion.
6. Superconducting devices and sensors. SQUIDS and superconducting Qubits, single photon detectors, filters for communications, materials, fabrication.
7. Electronic and thermal transport. Boltzmann theory and electronic transport in high magnetic fields, interpretation of experimental transport data including theoretical model.
8. Strongly correlated metals. Fermi liquid theory, electron-phonon effects, non-Fermi liquid effects, quantum phase transitions.
9. Introduction to many-body theory. Second Quantization, Greens functions, self-energy, linear response, Feynman diagrams, connection to Fermi liquid theory, Hubbard model.
10. Materials modelling. Density functional theory, choice of functional, mixed methods (DMFT), tight binding, surfaces and defects, structure searches and machine learning, phonons.
11. Material synthesis. Principles of materials design and crystal synthesis, bulk crystal growth from melt and solution
12. Probes of matter. Determination of atomic and magnetic structure by diffraction of x-rays, neutrons and electrons, inelastic scattering, principles of scanning probe microscopy (STM, AFM, SEM), electronic structure determination using ARPES and quantum oscillations.
13. Enabling technologies for superconducting applications. Cryogenics and cooling technologies, materials properties and design of cryogenic systems, vacuum technologies

How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit

You will have gained knowledge of the fundamental science of superconductors, the science of superconducting materials and their applications. You will be able to comprehend and engage with the scientific literature on superconductivity and understand the principles of specific calculation methods and experimental techniques.

Learning Outcomes (LO)

By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the fundamental science of superconductors, the science of superconducting materials and their applications.
2. Create models and apply appropriate methods to solve problems within the science presented

How you will learn

Lectures

How you will be assessed

Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):

Examples given in lectures.

Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):

Open-book coursework problem sheets (LO 1,2).

When assessment does not go to plan:

If you do not pass the unit, you will usually be offered reassessment. The reassessment may not be in the same form as the original assessment but will test the same learning outcomes.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. PHYSM0066).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.

The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.