Advances in Superconductivity X

Book excerpt: 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.