Superfluid SQUID Device Uses Helium-3

Brian Dance, Contributing Editor -- Semiconductor International, 12/1/2001

The first superfluid superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) has been developed by a group led by J.C. Seamus Davis, physics professor at the University of California-Berkeley. It uses helium-3 at a thousandth of a degree above the absolute zero of temperature. A conventional SQUID is sensitive to magnetic fields, whereas a superfluid SQUID can detect rotation, so it may be used in aircraft navigation. If the noise level of the device can be adequately reduced and a scaled-up superfluid SQUID constructed, Davis said it is possible it could be employed to measure the rotation of the earth.

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