Policy and Technology Trends: The Organisation of High Tc Superconductor Research in the UK

Abstract

Since Professor K.A. Muller and Dr J.G. Bednorz, working in the IBM laboratory in Zurich in 1986, discovered superconducting properties above 30K in various copper oxide ceramic materials, there has been a tremendous increase in interest in the phenomenon of superconductivity. This is partly because of the intrinsic scientific interest in the materials and the new processes which make superconductivity possible at these relatively high temperatures, and partly because of the exciting technical and commercial applications to which they may lead.