Numerous metals completely lose their resistance to the flow of electric current at temperatures approaching absolute zero (0 K, −273 °C, or −460 °F) and become superconducting. Other equally dramatic changes in electrical properties occur as well. One of these is the Josephson effect, named for the British physicist Brian D. Josephson, who predicted and then discovered the phenomenon in 1962. The Josephson effect governs the passage of current from one superconducting metal to another through a very thin insulating film between them (the Josephson junction) and the effects of small magnetic fields on this current.

Josephson junction devices change from one electrical state to another in extraordinarily short times, offering the possibility of producing superconducting microcircuits that operate faster than any other kind known. Serious efforts have been made to construct a computer on this basis, but most of the projects have been either discontinued or sharply cut back because of technical difficulties. Interest in the approach has also waned because of increases in the speed of III-V semiconductor microcircuits.

Josephson junctions have other uses in science. They make extremely sensitive detectors of small magnetic fields, for example. The voltage across a Josephson junction is known on theoretical grounds to be dependent only on the values of certain basic physical constants. Since these constants are known to great accuracy, Josephson junctions are now used to provide the absolute standard of voltage.

Other important applications of Josephson junctions have to do with the metrology of very high-speed signals. Measurements of fast phenomena require the use of even faster measurement tools, which Josephson devices provide.

Flat-panel displays

Display devices convey information in visible form from electronic devices to human viewers. Common examples are the faces on digital watches, numerical indicators on stereo equipment, and the picture tubes in television sets and computer monitors. Until recently the most versatile of these has been the picture tube, which can present numbers, letters, graphs, and both still and moving pictures. While picture tubes set a very high standard of performance and provide bright colour images, they are bulky, heavy, and expensive. Designers of television receivers have long desired a display device having the virtues of the picture tube but fewer of the disadvantages, so that a “picture on the wall” television set can be produced.

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New developments in flat-panel displays have made this possible. Such displays are advanced versions of the liquid crystal display familiar in digital watch faces. They are essentially two parallel sheets of thin glass having the facing sides coated with a transparent yet electrically conducting film such as indium tin oxide. The film layer nearer the viewer is patterned, while the other layer is not. The space between the films is filled with a fluid with unusual electrical and optical properties, so that, if an electrical field is established between the two thin films, the molecules of the fluid line up in such a way that the light-reflecting or light-transmitting properties of the assembly are radically changed. The electro-optical fluid is an electrical insulator, so very little electric current flows. Thus, almost no power is consumed, making the display well suited for use in battery-powered applications. All flat-panel displays have these characteristics in common, but the many different varieties exploit the electro-optical effects in numerous ways.

Displays that produce images are patterned with myriads of tiny picture elements that can be electrically activated independently to produce patterns of light and dark or arbitrary forms. Superposed colour filters having arrays of elements corresponding to those in the display permit the formation of colour images of a quality rivaling that of colour cathode-ray tube displays. Such displays are used as viewing devices for television sets, computers, and video and digital cameras.

Colour displays capable of serving as television screens or computer displays are available in sizes of more than 35 cm (15 inches) on the diagonal, at costs nearly competitive with picture tubes. There is strong demand for them in laptop computers, where the thinness of a flat-panel display is essential. Such displays have more than three million separate elements in the picture array, each of which must have separate means for its control. The control electronics is integrated into the display, for otherwise the number of individual wires needed to connect with the rest of the circuitry would be prohibitive.

A great amount of effort is being expended to increase the size and decrease the cost of flat-panel displays, because the potential market for them is clearly substantial. Much of the reduction in cost is obtained through experience in manufacturing, where low yields attributable to defects in the patterns have been a major problem.