Electric current certain materials when cooled below a characteristic critical temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum mechanical phenomenon. It is characterized by the Meissner effect, the complete ejection of magnetic field lines from the interior of the superconductor as it transitions into the superconducting state. The occurrence of the Meissner effect indicates that superconductivity cannot be understood simply as the idealization of "perfect conductivity" in classical physics. In a semiconductor it is sometimes useful to think of the current as due to the flow
Delft University of Technology Hanjalić, and the first Dutch prime minister of the Netherlands after World War II Wim Schermerhorn. Two TU Delft alumni were awarded Nobel Prize and one recipient has been affiliated with TU Delft: Jacobus van 't Hoff was awarded first Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1901 for his work with solutions. Simon van der Meer was awarded Nobel Prize in physics in 1984 for his work on stochastic cooling and one has been affiliated with TU Delft, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in 1913 for studies related to liquefaction of helium in the quest for the lowest temperature on Earth. Some of