Alexei Abrikosov

Abrikosov predicted that magnetic flux can enter a type-II superconductor in quantized vortices. The ordered pattern is now called the Abrikosov vortex lattice, based on his 1957 work using Ginzburg-Landau theory.

He shared the 2003 Nobel Prize with Vitaly Ginzburg and Anthony Leggett for work on superconductivity and superfluidity. Abrikosov's part centered on type-II superconductors, which are crucial for high-field magnets.

It is a tiny tube of magnetic flux passing through a superconductor while superconductivity survives around it. These vortices explain how type-II materials can remain useful in strong magnetic fields.

Abrikosov moved to the United States and worked at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois from the early 1990s. He later became a U.S. citizen while remaining known for his Soviet-era condensed matter theory.