How new are the high T_c superconductors, as compared to the conventional low T_c ones? In what sense are these oxides different from regular metals in their normal state? How different is the mechanism for high T_c superconductivity from the well-known electron–phonon interaction that explains so well superconductivity in metals and alloys? What are the implications of the new features of the high T_c oxides for their practical applications? This interesting book aims to provide some answers to those questions, drawing particularly on similarities between the high T_c oxides and granular superconductors, which also present a short coherence length and a small superfluid density.

Contents:

• Superfluidity
• Coherence Length, Penetration Depth and Critical Temperature
• The Phase Transition
• Phase Diagrams
• Gap, Symmetry and Pseudo-Gap
• Basics on Vortices
• Cuprate Superconductors Under Strong Fields
• From Fundamentals to Applications
• HTS Conductors and Their Applications

“… readers of New Superconductors will benefit from the unusual and compelling insights of a researcher who has thought deeply about both grandular and high-T_c superconductors. I recommend it as a self-study guide for students, instructors, and researchers who are looking for understandable and crisp material on the potential and promise of high-T_c superconductors.”