Heike Kamerlingh Onnes

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (September 21, 1853 – February 21, 1926) was a Dutch physicist. Onnes' scientific career was spent exploring extremely cold refrigeration techniques and the associated phenomena.

Superconductivity

Onnes conducted (in 1911) electrical analysis of pure metals (mercury, tin and lead) at very low temperatures. Some, such as William Thomson, believed that electrons flowing through a conductor would come to a complete halt. Others, including Onnes, felt that a conductors electrical resistance would steadily decrease and drop to nil. At 4.2 kelvins the resistance was zero. Onnes stated that the "Mercury has passed into a new state, which on account of its extraordinary electrical properties may be called the superconductive state". Onnes published more articles about the phenomena. Initially, Onnes preferred to call the phenomena "supraconductivity" and, only later, adopted the term "superconductivity".

Related Topics:
1911 - Mercury - Tin - Lead - William Thomson - Electron - Conductor - Electrical resistance - Kelvin - Superconductive state

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Among his later achievements was winning the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physics for (in the words of the committee) "his investigations on the properties of matter at low temperatures which led, inter alia, to the production of liquid helium". (Inter alia means "among other things".)

Related Topics:
1913 - Nobel Prize in Physics

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