Flux pumping Flux pumping Flux pumping is a method for magnetising superconductors to fields in excess of 15 teslas. The method can be applied to any type II superconductor and exploits a fundamental property of superconductors. That is their ability to support and maintain currents on the length scale of the superconductor. Conventional magnetic materials are magnetised on a molecular scale which means that superconductors can maintain a flux density orders of magnitude bigger than conventional materials. Flux pumping is especially significant when one bears in mind that all other methods of magnetising superconductors require application of a magnetic flux density at
Magnetic flux quantum Magnetic flux quantum The magnetic flux, represented by the symbol , threading some contour or loop is defined as the magnetic field multiplied by the loop area , i.e. . Both and can be arbitrary and so is . However, if one deals with the superconducting loop or a hole in a bulk superconductor, it turns out that the magnetic flux threading such a hole/loop is quantized. The (superconducting) magnetic flux quantum is a combination of fundamental physical constants: the Planck constant and the electron charge . Its value is, therefore, the same for any superconductor. The phenomenon of flux