Symmetry And Heterogeneity In High Temperature Superconductors

With this book, we wish to honor the lifework of K. Alex Müller and present him with this book on the occasion of his 94th birthday. We are convinced that he will very much enjoy reading it. We would like to thank all contributors to this book, who addressed topics complementary and related to his work. The articles of the book represent the efforts in solid state physics – spanning more than 60 years – which have been groundbreaking in scientific and applied sciences. Many of the current hot topics are derived from this earlier work which has pioneered the way toward new experimental tools and/or refined techniques. From this point of view, the book presents, on one hand, a historical review and, on the other hand, a directory of possible future research.

Since the discovery in 1986 of high temperature superconductors by J. G. Bednorz and K. A. Müller, a considerable progress has been made and several important scientific problems have emerged. Within this NATO Advanced Study Institute our intention was to focus mainly on the controversial topic of the symmetry of the superconducting gap and given the very short coherence length, the role of fluctuations. The Institute on ‘The Gap Symmetry and Fluctuations in High- Superconductors’ took place in the “Institut d’Etudes Scientifiques de Cargèse” in Corsica, France, between 1 - 13 September 1997. The 110 participantsfrom 18 countries (yet 30 nationalities) including 23 full time lecturers, have spent two memorable weeks in this charming Mediterranean resort. All lecturers were asked to prepare pedagogical papers to clearly present the central physical idea behind specific model or experiment. The better understanding of physics of high temperature superconductivity is certainly needed to guide the development of applications of these materials in high and weak current devices.

These Proceedings of a NATO-ARW (HTECH ARW 97 1843) held at the Oreanda Hotel, Yalta, Ukraine from April 29 till May 2 , 1998 resulted from many discussions between various workers, concerning the need for a gathering of all (if possible) who were concerned with the subject of symmetry of the order parameter and pairing states for superconductivity. We applied ourselves in particular to High critical Temperature Superconductors (HTS), but also studied other unconventional superconductors. The study of HTS is one of the most prominent research subjects in solid state sciences. The understanding of the role of symmetry and pairing conditions are also thought to be necessary before technological applications since these features may be influenced by external fields. The workshop discussions have touched upon theoretical and experimental aspects, but also on related topics. These served as initiators for a very great amount of discussions with many comments from the audience. More than thirty "long lectures" and one on going "poster session" were held. Private discussions went unrecorded but obviously took place at many locations : lecture halls, staircases, cafes, bedrooms, bars, beach,bus, plane... Arguments openly reported for the first time were often quite sharp ones, -and this is an understatement.

According to its tradition, the EUCAS Conference focused on the role of superconductivity in bridging various aspects of research with a variety of concrete advanced applications. The wide interactions among scientists operating worldwide in the field of superconductivity and the sharing of their knowledge and experience represented the main result of the event. The EUCAS Conference has been an ideal forum for presentation and discussion of recent developments in the field of applied superconductivity in the area of power and electronic applications. Great emphasis has been given to materials research directly connected to such applications. For this conference, 515 plenary, invited, and contributed papers were accepted, covering different areas of applications that strongly benefit from the use of superconductivity, such as energy transportation, large magnet systems, biomedical instrumentation, digital electronics, wireless communications, and quantum computing. Forty-two plenary and invited papers are included in Applied Superconductivity 2003, along with a CD-ROM that contains PDF files of all the contributed papers linked from contents lists (and, for completeness, plenary and invited papers). These proceedings are addressed to international physicists, electrotechnical and electronic engineers, material scientists, and chemists interested in the most recent and exciting advances in the field of applied superconductivity.

Studies Of High Temperature Superconductors Volume 29 -- Advances In Research & Applications

The articles collected in this book cover a wide range of materials with extraordinary superconducting and magnetic properties. For many of the materials studied, strong electronic correlations provide a link between these two phenomena which were long thought to be highly antagonistic. The book reports both the progress in our understanding of fundamental physical processes and the advances made towards the development of devices.

This book is devoted to superconductivity, which is one of the most interesting problems in physics. In accordance with the outline of the book, it treats the key problems in the field of superconductivity, in particular, it discusses the mechanism(s) of superconductivity. This book is useful for researchers and graduate students in the fields of solid state physics, quantum field theory, and many-body theory.