Superconductivity of Lead

Abstract

Numerous determinations of the zero-field transition temperature of lead have been made. All of these observations except that of Daunt were made by the direct measurement of electrical resistance. Daunt`s method involved the shielding effect of persistent currents in a hollow cylinder. In the authors work on columbium to be described in a forthcoming paper an a.c. induction method was used for the measurement of superconducting transitions. The superconductor was mounted as a cylindrical core of a coil which functioned as the secondary of a mutual inductance. The primary coil was actuated by an oscillator which provided a maximum a.c. field within the secondary of 1.5 oersteds at a frequency of 1000 cycles per second. The secondary e.m.f. which was dependent for its magnitude on the permeability of the core was amplified, rectifie, and observed on a recording potentiometer. During the application of this method to the study of columbium it appeared that a further check on the zero-field transition temperature of lead would be worth while especially if agreement between results for very pure samples could be obtained using this method. Such result would help in establishing the lead transition temperature as a reasonably reproducible reference point in themore » region between 4 deg and 10 deg K.« less