Microwave Superconductivity

TL;DR

This paper reviews the history and technological advances of microwave superconductivity, highlighting its unique electrodynamic properties that enable high-performance applications in accelerators, filters, quantum computing, and detectors.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of microwave superconductivity's development, emphasizing recent innovations and future prospects in the field.

Findings

Superconductors enable high-Q resonators with high current handling.

Microwave superconductivity is crucial for quantum computers and sensitive detectors.

Advances have led to improved accelerators, filters, and metamaterials.

Abstract

We give a broad overview of the history of microwave superconductivity and explore the technological developments that have followed from the unique electrodynamic properties of superconductors. Their low loss properties enable resonators with high quality factors that can nevertheless handle extremely high current densities. This in turn enables superconducting particle accelerators, high-performance filters and analog electronics, including metamaterials, with extreme performance. The macroscopic quantum properties have enabled new generations of ultra-high-speed digital computing and extraordinarily sensitive detectors. The microscopic quantum properties have enabled large-scale quantum computers, which at their heart are essentially microwave-fueled quantum engines. We celebrate the rich history of microwave superconductivity and look to the promising future of this exciting branch of microwave technology.