This volume commemorates the 10th anniversary of the discovery of high temperature superconductors (HTS). The historical framework and present status of HTS are reviewed, and the future of the field contemplated so that the HTS science can be unraveled and the HTS technology developed. This book contains the works of about 200 members of the international HTS community — from universities, government centers and laboratories, major industries and small businesses. It focuses on early and major new findings in the physics and mechanisms, materials and applications of HTS, with a projection to the emerging and future areas in science and technology.

This extensive and comprehensive handbook systematically reviews the basic physics, theory and recent advances in superconductivity. Covering the entire field, this unparalleled resource carefully blends theoretical studies with experimental results to provide an indispensable foundation for further research. Leading researchers, including Nobel laureates, describe the state of the art in conventional and unconventional superconductors. In addition to full-coverage of novel materials and underlying mechanisms, the handbook reflects continued, intense research into electron-phone based superconductivity.

The International Symposium on Superconductivity, which has been held annu ally since 1988, is a forum for presenting the most up-to-date information about a broad range of research and development in superconductivity, from funda mental aspects to applications. More than 10 years have passed since the discovery of oxide superconductors and since various developments of applications began. It may be said that the prospects for application of oxide superconductors recently have opened up. Great progress has been made toward practical use, for example, of the flywheel, which uses bulk materials, and the high-performance cryo-cooled magnet made of bismuth wire. These were the results of persistent efforts to develop materials from the viewpoint of materials science and engineering. Also important is the progress in comprehensive understanding of high temperature superconductivity. Unique electronic properties of cuprates such as the non-Fermi liquid normal state, spin-charge separation, spin gap, and d-wave symmetry were discussed at the symposium, as were the unique electromagnetic properties resulting from the low dimensionality of cuprates. In the field of new superconductors, many exotic materials have been discovered since 1986. A decade of work with cuprate superconductors is reviewed in this proceedings, and several of the newest materials are presented. These papers will be instructive for many researchers and for students who are to enter this field.

With its comprehensive review of the current knowledge and the future requirements in the field, this book presents all the features of bulk high temperature superconducting materials. Starting from physical and chemical fundamentals, the authors move on to portray methods and problems of materials processing, thoroughly working out the characteristic properties of bulk superconductors in contrast to long conductors and films. They provide a wide range of specific materials characteristics with respect to the latest developments and future applications guiding from fundamentals to practical engineering examples. The authors are all leading international specialists involved in the field of high TC superconductor bulk materials since the beginning. Of utmost interest to engineers, scientists, and PhD students working in this field.

There is considerable interest in the intrinsically multiscale structure and dynamics of complex electronic oxides, especially since these materials include those of technological importance, such as colossal magnetoresistance manganites and cuprate high temperature superconductors. Current microscopies, such as diffuse X-ray and inelastic neutron scattering, electromagnetic and acoustic response, NMR and scanning tunneling microscope probes, have revealed static and dynamic multiscale patterns in charge positioning, lattice structure and magnetic orientation, that respond to both external stress and magnetic field. These self-organized patterns include charge and orbital ordering; stripes in strain/spin; and labyrinth-like conductance modulations. The materials exhibit nanoscale phase segregation and mesoscale inhomogeneous clustering, and their phase transitions can have a percolative character.This volume presents experimental and theoretical work on these exciting new developments in condensed matter physics and materials science.

The discovery of high-temperature superconductivity [1986] by Bendnorz and Muller in the La-BA-Cu-O system resulted in very extensive research work about the discovery and synthesis of other high-temperature superconductors, such as Y-BA-Cu-O and Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O. These new superconducting materials, possessing superconductivity above liquid nitrogen