Physics of High-Temperature Superconductors

For active researchers as well as young scientists in the field of high-temperature superconductivity, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the present state of research activity. Emphasis is placed on theoretical and experimental results concerning electronic and physical properties of cuprates.

I Plenary Lecture.- The Pairing Theory - Its Physical Basis and Its Consequences.- II Theory.- II.1 Electronic Structure.- Electronic Excitations Within the Cu-0 Planes.- Physical Parameters in High-Temperature Superconductors.- Binding and Structural Aspects of High-Tc Superconductivity.- Electronic State in Oxide Superconductors.- Key Factors for the Superconducting and Normal State Properties of Cuprates.- Evidence in Favor of a Nematic Ordering in La2CuO4+?.- II.2 Physical Properties.- Strong Correlation Models for High-Tc Superconductors.- On the Spin Excitations of High-Tc Oxides.- Gauge Field Theory of the Normal State Properties of High-Tc Superconductors.- Microscopic Theory of Luttinger Liquids in One Dimension.- II.3 Superconducting Mechanism and Properties.- Generalization of BCS Superconductivity to Non-Phonon Mediated Interactions: The Excitonic Interaction.- Formation, Motion, and Superconductivity of Large Bipolarons.- Application of Marginal Fermi-Liquid Phenomenology to the Superconductive State of Cu-O Materials.- Antiferromagnetic Fluctuations in High-Tc Oxides.- The Physics Underlying High-Tc Superconductivity: Novel vs Exotic.- A (Very) Brief Overview of Semionic Superconductivity.- Fluctuations in Type-II Superconductors: A Dense Vortex Plasma Picture.- III Experiment.- III.I Materials.- Material Design of High-Tc Oxides.- High Pressure Synthesis and Characterization of Single Crystalline YBa2Cu4O8(Tc = 80 K) and Y2Ba4Cu7O15±x (14 K ? Tc ? 94 K).- III.2 Physical Properties and Electronic Structure.- Physical Properties of Cuprate Superconductors: An Introduction.- Successive Structural Transitions of La2?xBaxCuO4.- The Normal-State Transport Properties of the High-Temperature Cuprate Superconductors.- Optical Properties ofHigh-Temperature Superconductors.- An Introduction to Infrared Properties of High-Tc Superconductors.- Electronic Structure Studies of Cuprate Superconductors by High-Energy Spectroscopy.- Angle-Resolved Photoemission, Inverse Photoemission, and X-Ray Absorption Studies of Superconductive and Non-Superconductive Bi-Sr-Ca-Y-Cu-O.- Electronic Structure of Electron- and Hole-Doped 3d Transition-Metal Oxides.- Anisotropy of Cuprate Superconductors Under STM/STS.- Unusual (Anomalous) Properties of the Normal and Superconducting State of Cu-Oxides.- III.3 Anisotropic Properties.- Anisotropy in Elastic Properties of HTSC Seen by Ultrasonics.- Some Consequences of Anisotropy.- Anisotropic Properties of Layered Superconductors.- Thin Films and Superlattices of High-Tc Superconductors.- III.4 Superconducting Properties.- Critical Currents in High-Tc Superconductors.- Anisotropy of Flux Lattice Structures in the Low Field Mixed State of the High-Tc Superconductor BSCCO (2212).- Some Implications of a Short Coherence Length in High-Temperature Superconductors.- Flux Quantisation in Superconducting Rings and the Mixed State.- Flux Quantisation and Its Application to rf and dc SQUIDs.- Index of Contributors.