The series is designed to provide a convenient access to important advances in the field for scientists and engineers as well as for graduate students. This volume, as the previous one, contains 15 chapters, each of which is an extensive review article discussing fundamental properties, characterization techniques, theoretical approaches, or applications of high-T, superconductivity.
The book opens with a comprehensive review of solid state chemistry and structural aspects of high-T, superconductors by B. Raveau et al. from the Laboratoire CRISMAT in Caen, France. Their structural investigations of copper oxides originated from studies of metal-like oxides and began eight years before Bednorz and Miiller's Nobel Price-winning discovery. The authors summarize the structural chemistry of La,-, (Ba, Sr), CuO,, YBa,Cu,O, as well as Bi and T1 based high-T, superconductors. They close their review with a discussion of oxygen non-stoichiometry, mixed valence, and superconductivity. R. J. Wijngarden and R. Griessen from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands, review high pressure work on high-T, superconductors. High pressure experiments led the way from La,~,Ba,CuO, to YBa,Cu,O,, and, the authors argue, such experiments can be used to test theoretical models of high-T, superconductivity. Consequently, their article is divided into an experimental and a theoretical part. After a short section reviewing thermodynamic equations the authors present examples of high pressure techniques such as pressure bombs and diamond anvil cells giving particular attention to the measurement of resistivity and susceptibility under high pressure. A detailed discussion of the high pressure properties of La, Y, Bi, and T1 based superconductors follows. Experimental re-