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Alexei Abrikosov, born in 1928, Russian-born American physicist and cowinner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in physics for theories that explained the properties of superconductors—metals and other substances that carry an electric current without any resistance when cooled to extremely low temperatures. Abrikosov’s insights during the 1950s helped propel an area of research that became very active in the 1980s and 1990s, as scientists developed new superconducting compounds. Superconductors are expected to find wide application in the future—for example, in new kinds of electric motors and generators, and in improved means for transmitting electric current long distances over power lines.
Abrikosov was born in Moscow in what was then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). He earned his doctoral degree in 1951 from the Institute for Physical Problems in Moscow, and another advanced degree, in quantum electrodynamics, from the same institution in 1955. After working at several institutions and universities in Russia, Abrikosov moved to the United States at the end of the Cold War in 1991, joining the staff at the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago, Illinois.
Research early in the 1900s had proved the existence of superconductivity in metals and other compounds that were cooled to near absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible: -273.15°C (-459.67°F). What was still lacking when Abrikosov began his research in the 1950s was a theoretical framework to explain how different superconducting systems worked, particularly in relation to magnetic fields. Two other Russian physicists, Vitaly L. Ginzburg and Lev Landau, explained the manner in which superconductors known at that time blocked or displaced magnetic fields. These superconductors were dubbed Type I. The theories of Ginzburg and Landau suggested another type of superconductor. Building on the Ginzburg-Landau theory, Abrikosov explained the phenomenon in which some superconductors admit a magnetic field and function in its presence under certain conditions. These superconductors were designated Type II.
Abrikosov’s theories accurately predicted the properties of Type II superconductors. These properties were subsequently discovered in new Type II superconducting compounds, including ceramic compounds that become superconducting at higher temperatures, which are more practical to achieve. Abrikosov’s theories on electricity and magnetic fields have also been applied in the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines that can peer inside the human body, and in the high-energy accelerators that allow physicists to investigate fundamental subatomic particles, such as quarks.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Abrikosov’s other distinctions include election to the Russian Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His Nobel Prize was shared with Ginzburg and with British-born American physicist Anthony J. Leggett, who was honored for separate work on the phenomenon of superfluidity.