Volume 30: Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths, 1st Edition

Description

This volume of the Handbook is the first of a two-volume set of reviews devoted to the rare-earth-based high-temperature oxide superconductors (commonly known as hiTC superconductors). The history of hiTC superconductors is a few months short of being 14 years old when Bednorz and Müller published their results which showed that (La,BA)2CuO4 had a superconducting transition of ~30 K, which was about 7K higher than any other known superconducting material. Within a year the upper temperature limit was raised to nearly 100K with the discovery of an ~90K superconducting transition in YBa2Cu3O7-&dgr;. The announcement of a superconductor with a transition temperature higher than the boiling point of liquid nitrogen set-off a frenzy of research on trying to find other oxide hiTC superconductors. Within a few months the maximum superconducting transition reached 110 K (Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3010, and then 122K (TlBa2Ca3Cu4O11. It took several years to push TC up another 11 K to 133 K with the discovery of superconductivity in HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8, which is still the record holder today.

Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths, 1st Edition

Contents. Hightemperature superconductivity in layered cuprates: overview (B. Maple). Crystal chemistry of superconducting rare-earths cuprates (B. Raveau, C. Michel, M. Hervieu). Single-crystal growth for science and technology (Y. Shiohara, E.A. Goodilin). Phase diagrams and thermodynamic properties (P. Karen, A. Kjekshus). Electron paramagnetic resonance in cuprate superconductors and in parent compounds (B. Elschner, A. Loidl). Positron annihilation in high-temperature superconductors (A. Manuel). RBa2Cu3O7 compounds: Electronic theory and physical properties (W.E. Pickett, I.I. Mazin). Electronic 4f state splittings in cuprates (U. Staub, L. Soderholm). Author index. Subject index.