Abstract
Triggered by the discovery of high-transition-temperature (high-T c) superconducting copper oxides in 1986, seven different material families have been found to show superconductivity at temperatures higher than 23 K, the record high-T c value before 1986. Six of them have T c’s not reaching 40 K, but the copper oxides and the iron compounds are distinct from others in their outstandingly high T c values, 135 K and 55 K, respectively and unconventional Cooper pairs. Most of them do not obey the Matthias rules which gave a guiding principle for finding new superconducting materials with high T c. Instead, several features emerge in common with most of the high-T c families. In this chapter, are raised basic questions; what makes T c high in each family and why copper oxides and iron compounds are so special with central concern on a possibility of enhancing T c.
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Uchida, Si. (2015). Introduction. In: High Temperature Superconductivity. Springer Series in Materials Science, vol 213. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55300-7_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55300-7_1
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