A supercurrent is a superconducting current, that is,
electric current
An electric current is a flow of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space. It is defined as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface. The moving particles are called charge c ...
which flows without
dissipation
In thermodynamics, dissipation is the result of an irreversible process that affects a thermodynamic system. In a dissipative process, energy ( internal, bulk flow kinetic, or system potential) transforms from an initial form to a final form, wh ...
in a
superconductor.
Under certain conditions, an electric current can also flow without dissipation in microscopically small non-superconducting metals. However, currents in such
perfect conductor
In electrostatics, a perfect conductor is an idealized model for real conducting materials. The defining property of a perfect conductor is that static electric field and the charge density both vanish in its interior. If the conductor has excess ...
s are not called supercurrents, but
persistent current
In physics, persistent current is a perpetual electric current that does not require an external power source. Such a current is impossible in normal electrical devices, since all commonly used conductors have a non-zero resistance, and this resist ...
s.
References
Superconductivity
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