K. Alex Müller

K. Alex Müller was a Swiss physicist who shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics with J. Georg Bednorz for discovering superconductivity in ceramic materials at unexpectedly high temperatures.

J. Georg Bednorz: A German physicist who shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering high-temperature superconductivity with K. Alex Müller. Müller and Bednorz jointly identified superconductivity in lanthanum barium copper oxide.
Superconductivity: A state in which a material has zero electrical resistance and expels magnetic fields below a critical temperature. Müller’s work revealed this state in ceramics at temperatures unusually high for the time.
ETH Zurich: A Swiss university of science and technology where Müller studied physics and later held an academic appointment. Müller’s education and early academic career were rooted at this institution.
Cuprate superconductors: Copper-oxide materials that superconduct at relatively high temperatures and include several distinct compound families. The first high-temperature ceramic result opened a broad search for related copper-oxide superconductors.
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes: A Dutch physicist who discovered superconductivity in mercury in 1911. His discovery established the phenomenon Müller’s ceramic materials later extended to much higher temperatures.
Lanthanum barium copper oxide: A copper-oxide ceramic compound that becomes superconducting when appropriately doped and cooled. This was the material in which Bednorz and Müller first reported high-temperature superconductivity.
Rutile: A mineral form of titanium dioxide with a crystal structure used in solid-state physics research. Müller studied structural and dielectric properties of rutile before turning to superconducting oxides.
Liquid nitrogen: Nitrogen cooled into a liquid at about 77 kelvins under atmospheric pressure. Some copper-oxide superconductors operate above this comparatively accessible cooling temperature.
John Bardeen: An American physicist who co-developed the BCS theory of conventional superconductivity and shared two Nobel Prizes in Physics. The theory he co-developed explained conventional superconductors, but not Müller’s high-temperature ceramic materials.
Critical temperature: The temperature below which a material enters a superconducting state. The unusually high transition temperature made the ceramic result striking.

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Georg BednorzRelated: Müller proposed exploring superconductivity in oxide materials and collaborated with Bednorz on the discovery.