Search for New Very High Temperature Superconductors From an Applications Perspective

Historically, a room-temperature superconductor has been the Holy Grail of research in new superconducting materials. It seemed obvious that such a superconductor would transform the applications of superconductivity, and this is no doubt true. However, in this paper, we examine the physics of high-temperature superconductivity together with the requirements for electric power applications and demonstrate that these two perspectives interact in fundamental ways. Both are necessary to understand the materials space where useful high-temperature superconductors should be sought. Happily, the restricted space of useful high-temperature superconductors coincides with that necessary for the existence of high-temperature superconductivity in and of itself. Based on these ideas, we comment on where one should look for our Holy Gail.