Analysis of Energy Loss in Superconducting Waveguides

Abstract

In this chapter, the characteristics of the propagation of waves in superconducting waveguides are investigated. To compute the propagation constant, the complex conductivity of the superconductor is incorporated into the set of characteristic equations which describes the propagation constant of waves in the waveguide. An important outcome from this analysis is that superconducting waveguides are shown to behave like a lossless waveguide, exhibiting literally lossless behaviour at frequencies above the cutoff and below the gap frequency. Above the gap frequency, however, the waveguide loses its superconductivity, giving attenuation which increases in correspond to frequencies. The result suggests strongly that superconducting waveguides can be applied in receiver systems to minimize the loss of propagating signals.