Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Müller investigated oxide compositions that displayed a striking electrical resistivity decrease on cooling. Their 1986 report described oxygen-deficient barium-lanthanum-copper compounds, with a superconducting-like onset in the 30 kelvin range. Because the samples contained several phases, a connected conducting path could dominate electrical resistance before the whole specimen behaved uniformly. The work connected materials chemistry and electrical measurements in the emergence of high-temperature superconductivity.[ref]
Possible high Tc superconductivity in the Ba-La-Cu-O system by Johannes Georg Bednorz and Karl Alexander Müller. Zeitschrift für Physik B 64, 189–193 (1986), abstract and multiphase interpretation
A solid-state physicist who researched metallic oxides at IBM's Zurich laboratory.[ref]
Professional profile of Johannes Georg Bednorz. Independent professional identity
Portrait of Georg Bednorz
. Adrian Tync. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. Articles by others on the same topic
Georg Bednorz is a German physicist best known for his pioneering work in the field of high-temperature superconductivity. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1987, alongside Alexei Abrikosov and Robert Schrieffer, for their research on superconductors. Bednorz and his collaborator, K. Alex Müller, discovered a new class of superconductors based on ceramic materials, which exhibited superconductivity at temperatures significantly higher than those of previously known superconductors.