Neutron Scattering in Layered Copper-Oxide Superconductors
Autor: Albert Furrer
Número de Páginas: 416The phenomenon of superconductivity - after its discovery in metals such as mercury, lead, zinc, etc. by Kamerlingh-Onnes in 19]] - has attracted many scientists. Superconductivity was described in a very satisfactory manner by the model proposed by Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer, and by the extensions proposed by Abrikosov, Gorkov and Eliashberg. Relations were established between superconductivity and the fundamental properties of solids, resulting in a possible upper limit of the critical temperature at about 23 K. The breakthrough that revolutionized the field was made in 1986 by Bednorz and Muller with the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in layered copper-oxide perovskites. Today the record in transition temperature is 133 K for a Hg based cuprate system. The last decade has not only seen a revolution in the size of the critical temperature, but also in the myriads of research groups that entered the field. In addition, high-temperature superconductivity became a real interdisciplinary topic and brought together physicists, chemists and materials scientists who started to investigate the new compounds with almost all the available experimental techniques and...
