Design for a Room Temperature Superconductor

TL;DR

This paper reviews the history and recent progress towards designing a room temperature superconductor, highlighting new insights that could enable practical high-temperature superconductivity.

Contribution

It provides a blueprint for constructing a viable room temperature superconductor based on recent scientific clarifications.

Findings

Historical perspectives on high temperature superconductivity

Recent discoveries clarify key issues in superconductor design

Blueprint for future development of room temperature superconductors

Abstract

The vision of ``room temperature superconductivity'' has appeared intermittently but prominently in the literature since 1964, when W. A. Little and V. L. Ginzburg began working on the `problem of high temperature superconductivity' around the same time. Since that time the prospects for room temperature superconductivity have varied from gloom (around 1980) to glee (the years immediately after the discovery of HTS), to wait-and-see (the current feeling). Recent discoveries have clarified old issues, making it possible to construct the blueprint for a viable room temperature superconductor.