Olejar Books

Superconductivity was discovered 75 years ago, but progress in raising the transition temperature was snailpaced until the discovery of higher temperature superconductivity in copper oxide compounds in 1986. Since then, scores of researchers around the world have dropped everything to pursue the study of this amazing new class of materials. These materials have properties that few scientists would have imagined to be within the reach of 20th century science. As a consequence, thousands of chemists and engineers have devoted themselves to this exhilarating quest to understand these high-temperature superconductors, improve their properties, and push them into practical commercial applications. The round-theclock pace of this research has led to the kind of advances in the past few months that scientists were not expecting for decades. This 28-chapter book presents the results of some of this research. It is divided into seven sections. In the first section, three chapters are discussions and overviews of the theory of superconductivity. The second section, Materials Preparation and Characterization, contains nine chapters that give detailed descriptions of various synthetic and analytical techniques. The eight chapters in the section on Structure-Property Relationships present discussions of variations in superconducting properties related to changes in structure. Other sections focus on Surfaces and Interfaces, Processing and Fabrication, Applications, and Research Needs and Opportunities. The advent of superconducting materials could be a boon to utilities, industry, electronics, transportation, medicine, and research. This book will be of enormous help to chemists, physicists, and materials scientists working with superconductors.