Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths

Edited by
K.A. Gschneidner, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
L. Eyring, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
M.B. Maple

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 hiT_C superconductors). The history of hiT_C 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 YBa₂Cu₃O_{7 - δ}. 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 hiT_C superconductors. Within a few months the maximum superconducting transition reached 110 K (Bi₂Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃0₁₀, and then 122K (TlBa₂Ca₃Cu₄O₁₁. It took several years to push T_C up another 11 K to 133 K with the discovery of superconductivity in HgBa₂Ca₂Cu₃O₈, which is still the record holder today.

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Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths