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The motto of connectivity and superconductivity is that the solutions of the Ginzburg--Landau equations are qualitatively influenced by the topology of the boundaries, as in multiply-connected samples. Special attention is paid to the "zero set", the set of the positions (also known as "quantum vortices") where the order parameter vanishes. The effects considered here usually become important in the regime where the coherence length is of the order of the dimensions of the sample. It takes the intuition of physicists and the awareness of mathematicians to find these new effects. In Connectivity and Superconductivity, theoretical and experimental physicists are brought together with pure and applied mathematicians to review these surprising results. This volume is intended to serve as a reference book for graduate students and researchers in physics or mathematics interested in superconductivity, or in the Schrödinger equation as a limiting case of the Ginzburg--Landau equations. ... Read more

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Detailed coverage of all aspects of microwavesuperconductivity: fundamentals, fabrication of thin and thick films,measurement, components, circuits, cryogenic packaging and marketpotential. Applications covered, using either active or passivecircuit elements, include those based on both the older metal-basedsuperconductors operating at liquid-helium temperatures and the newerceramic-based superconductors operating at liquid-nitrogentemperatures. Applications covered in detail include filters,resonators and antennas for wireless communications and militarysystems, space-based cryoelectronics, RF SQUIDs and DC SQUIDamplifiers, NMR and MRI coils, accelerator cavities, and Josephsonflux-flow devices in the millimeter and sub-millimeter regimes. The book focuses solely on microwave superconductivity and iscomprehensive. It is intended for use as a textbook in an electricalengineering graduate course in Microwave Superconductivity and as areference book for microwave engineers. ... Read more

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This text is on the modern theory of superconductivity, It deals with the behavior of superconductors in external fields varying in time, and with transport phenomena in superconductors. The book starts with the fundamentals of the first-principle, microscopy theory of superconductivity, and guides the reader through the modern theoretical analysis directly to applications of the theory to practical problems.

The reader of this book will learn about the methods of quantum field theory applied to nonstationary superconductivity in their most advanced formulation, namely about the so-called semi-classical version of the real-time Green's function technique applied to the celebrated Barbeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer model of superconductivity. A considerable part of the book is devoted to vortex dynamics, dealing with the behavior of superconductors in the most practical situation when they carry electric currents in the presence of a magnetic field. ... Read more

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Discusses the history of the development of superconductive materials and explores the problem of finding materials that are superconductive at higher temperatures. ... Read more

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Introduction to Superconductivity has become an essential part of many undergraduate courses. This revised edition has a new chapter covering high temperature superconductivity as well as a significant number of other updates and revisions. The authors have aimed to explain as clearly as possible the basic phenomena and concepts of superconductivity in a manner which will be understood by those with no previous knowledge of the field and only a modest acquaintance with solid state physics. Their success in this aim can be measured by the widespread acceptance of this book as one of the finest textbooks in the field


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Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent Introductory book
This amazingly simple book can almost be read as the bedtime story of superconductivity. It introduces the reader to most of the key concepts of superconductivity, using simple physical concepts, without going through complicated formalism. I would recommend that every student of superconductivity reads this book before embarking on a more formal course of supercnductivity.

A nice short introduction to superconductivity
I cannot help associating this book to the A,B,C of Superconductivity. I remember that, during the ICTP Workshops on High Tc superconductors around 1990, the book immediately dissapeared from the shelves at the ICTPlibrary: too many people from other fields were introducing themselves inthe -then fashionable-subject of superconductors. In particular, the book'sattempt to makeBCS theory understandable is notorious. Generallyspeaking, all the subjects are treated with simplicity and rigor, and someof them (as transport currents in the mixed state of type IIsuperconductors) are approached in a speciallycomprehensible fashion. Theuse of the pendulum analogue forJosephson devices is very convenient to"hook" the reader. If I don't give it five stars, it is because much newer books as "Foundations of Applied Superconductivity", by Orlando and Delin(1991) are more updated introductions to the subject. However,"Introduction to Superconductivity" is still perhaps the winner of the100-meter-run in Superconductivity. ... Read more

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This up-to-date work presents a modern vision of magnetism and superconductivity covering both microscopic and phenomenological aspects. The basic information is illustrated with the help of current research topics such as the quantum Hall effect or mesoscopic aspects of superconductivity.

Customer Reviews (2)

Clear, Detailed, Precise
I've been trying to get up to speed on some topics involving superconductors (SQUIDs, specifically), and I've found this book to be ultra-useful.What's so nice about it is that (as the previous reviewer mentioned) it has an EE flavour--which, as far as I can tell, means that it values clarity and applicability over terseness or 'elegance.'That's not to say that the book isn't well written; it is.But unlike some other texts I've looked through, this one aims at bottom-up completeness.The reader is expected to know some electrodynamics and circuit theory, but no prior knowledge of quantum mechanics is needed.The authors are very careful to derive all the necessary equations in a way that keeps the chain of logic taut at all times.After struggling with a few other books, this one felt like a gift.

An excelent graduate textbook
As a Physics professor, I have used this book for five yearsas the main textbook for my course "Introduction to Superconductivity", typically attended by Physics majors and graduates.Beyond its unique"electrical engineering flavour" (including the detailedexplanation of many potential applications of superconductors), there is asecond major achievement: the systematic unification of the phenomenologyof superconductivity using an explicit macroscopic quantum approach.

Thisapproach could be seen as a "mathematically softened" version ofthe Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity, which makes it veryconvenient for undergraduate and graduate students --being engineers orphysicists. The presentation of the material is extremely clear, with avery careful notation (typical of electrical engineers!) and excellentgraphic material. There are appendicesranging from vector identities andspecialfunctions to High Tc data, which make the book veryself-consistent. I recommend it as a rigorous introduction to thephenomenology of superconductivity without any reserve. It is really a pitythat --as far as I know--there's no exercise solution book available! ... Read more

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This book presents the interdisciplinary field of solid electrodynamics and its applications in superconductor and microwave technologies. It gives scientists and engineers the foundation necessary to deal with theoretical and applied electromagnetics, continuum mechanics, applied superconductivity, high-speed electronic circuit design, microwave engineering and transducer technology. ... Read more

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The discoveries of new superconducting materials, most of them during the last 30 years, have served very much as the context for further developments in theory which continue to the present. In many of these cases, the observations of superconductivity in new materials were completely unexpected and therefore may be regarded as real discoveries. Even the most visible progress, which followed a search using, to some extent, conventional wisdom, was finally rather unexpected - the discovery of high-Tc superconductivity in copper oxides.
 This book presents superconductivity in this materials context and displays some of the underlying simplicity in the materials record that provided fuel for the theoretical developments. Not only is the phenomenon deeply interesting, the metallic systems where it plays out are as well, and superconductivity gives a very interesting window from which to view the nature of electrically conducting materials. The level is not advanced, yet allows the  serious reader to access the current developments in the literature.

• Addresses in detail the exciting developments after 1980.


• Demonstrates that progress in superconductivity is to a large extent due to progress in materials synthesis and characterization.


• Gateway to the current developments in the literature.
  
  

Product Description
Superconductivity remains one of the most interesting research areas in physics and stood as a major scientific mystery for a large part of this century. This book, written for graduate students and researchers in the field of superconductivity, discusses important aspects of the experiment and theory surrounding superconductivity. New experimental investigations of magnetic and thermodynamic superconducting properties of mesoscopic samples are explored with the help of recent developments in nanotechnologies and measurement techniques, and the results are predicted based upon theoretical models in nanoscale superconducting systems. Topics of special interest include high-Tc superconductivity, two-gap superconductivity, mechanism of superconductivity and mesoscopic superconductivity. Particular attention is given to understanding the symmetry and pairing in superconductors. ... Read more

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Conceived as the definitive reference in a classic and important field of modern physics, this extensive and comprehensive handbook systematically reviews the basic physics, theory and recent advances in the field of superconductivity. Leading researchers, including Nobel laureate, describe the state of the art in conventional and unconventional superconductors at a particularly opportune time, as new experimental techniques and field-theoretical methods have emerged. In addition to full-coverage of novel materials and underlying mechanisms, the handbook reflects continued intense research into electron-phone based superconductivity. Considerable attention is devoted to high-T_c superconductivity, novel superconductivity, including triplet pairing in the ruthenates, novel superconductors, such as Heavy-Fermion metals and organic materials, and also granular superconductors. What s more, several contributions address superconductors with impurities and nanostructured superconductors. Important new results on current problems are presented in a manner designed to stimulate further research. Numerous illustrations, diagrams and tables make this book especially useful as a reference work for researchers, students and teachers. Treating the entire superconductivity field, this unparalleled reference resource carefully blends theoretical studies with experimental results to provide the scientist and engineers an indispensable foundation for further research.

Product Description
Since 1987, stories about superconductivity have regularly appeared on the front pages of newspapers. A breakthrough by two physicists at IBM's Zurich laboratory suddenly transformed what had long been considered an unrewarding backwater of physics into a glamorous and trendy scienrific frontier. A stunning series of discoveries followed that promised to propel the world into a science-fiction future of flying trains, cheap energy and lightning-fast computers. In record time, the IBM physicists received the Nobel Prize. This is the story of what has been called the most important scientific discovery of the last 20 years. The author interviews important figures in the rapidly developing and intensely competitive field of high-temperature superconductivity. Schechter also analyzes the conflicting US and Japanese commercial interests in the new technology, which promises to be an arena for internaitonal economic comptetition. Bruce Schechter has written for "Discover" magazine, "Technology Illustrated" and "Physics Today". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Not that super
Just three short years before this book was published, scientists were storming a ballroom at the New York Hilton to get an earful about (comparatively) high-temperature superconductivity, an event recalled as "the Woodstock of physics." But by the time this book was published, not much more was being heard about it.
The reason is that high-temperature superconductivity is unlikely ever to affect our daily lives. Ignorant reporters and inexperienced researchers combined to create 1987's firestorm of publicity about superconductors. In "The Path of No Resistance," Bruce Schechter quotes an IBM researcher as saying, "I can't believe we were saying the things we were saying."
The barrier to, let's say, fast trains levitating across the country on superconducting magnets could have been discovered by consulting any materials engineer: So far, all high-temperature superconductors are fragile ceramics; while they perform astounding tricks when they are the size of a pencil eraser, they cannot be made large enough to do useful work.
(The magnetic levitation trains of Japan and West Germany use familiar, ultra-low temperature superconductors, metals that have great strength.)
But while high-temperature superconductors are not going to become any more familiar around the house than lasers (which by the 21st century had achieved one important and two minor consumer uses), the brief, gaudy public career of superconduction does bring into focus a number of important topics.
Amid all the arguments about directing research -- should we use the Japanese way? -- there arises the human factor: Scientists are hesitant to probe areas that are unfashionable. One of the discoverers of high-temperature superconduction, Alex Muller, was an IBM Fellow, free in principle to investigate any topic he liked. But even Muller pretended to be doing something else, to avoid scornful remarks of other scientists, who "knew" that high-temperature superconduction was "not serious."
Schechter makes this point very well, then stumbles into a very common misconception that military research (which in the early '90s got three out of five U.S. government scientific dollars) is done at the expense of "basic" research. In fact, some military research is pointless. Labels do not tell the story.
Another aspect of the sociology of science involves you, the reader of this review, Schechter points out that the invention of the transistor was covered by The New York Times in 1948 in four and a half inches of type in the radio news column. We expect more from our scientists and our reporters these days, and we get more bulk. Whether the quality has also improved is doubtful: preposterous stories about Iraq's "Doomsday gun" that were peddled around about the time of Gulf War I and the original publication of this book were a case in point.
Schechter's slim volume is good on the science and fairly good on the sociology, but somewhat uncritical in the anecdote department. He tells a story about Bernd Matthias, a superconducting pioneer who was a hot ticket in the physics world of the '60s. According to Schechter, "One day he hopped into a taxi and the driver asked, 'Where to?'
" 'Anywhere,' Matthias replied. 'They all want me.' "
That story was more amusing, and almost believable, the first time I heard it, applied to Herbert von Karajan, a super conductor of a different sort.

An Exciting Tale
This is a witty and interesting history of one of the more popularly known, if not as widely valued or understood, triumphs of modern science.The story behind this story is actually more interesting than the story itself.That is, the people and events that lead to the breakthrough of higher-temperature superconductors are surprisingly human and, therefore, more easily appreciated by those of us who are not cryogenics physicists.The author has an engaging style and, but for a short section that slightly over-applauds the Japanese, recites the facts without ever lecturing.

A really fun read for anyone who likes behind-the-scenes science books.

An Exciting Tale
This is a witty and interesting history of one of the more popularly known, if not as widely valued or understood, triumphs of modern science.The story behind this story is actually more interesting than the story itself.That is, the people and events that lead to the breakthrough of higher-temperature superconductors are surprisingly human and, therefore, more easily appreciated by those of us who are not cryogenics physicists.The author has an engaging style and, but for a short section that slightly over-applauds the Japanese, recites the facts without ever lecturing.

A really fun read for anyone who likes behind-the-scenes science books. ... Read more

Product Description
Here is a concise, tutorial overview of the exciting new field of high-temperature superconductivity. This authoritative textbook focuses on topics, experimental results, and theoretical issues that are likely to have lasting value and are readily understandable to upper-level undergraduates and others new to the field. Written primarily from an experimental point of view, the book reviews conventional superconductors and then presents the structure, normal state and superconducting properties, and applications of the new cuprate superconductors. An insightful analysis of critical currents in thin films and wires is included. The book will provide an excellent supplementary text for students taking their first solid state physics course. In addition, all those with a basic knowledge of solid state physics will find the book to be a useful introduction to the field.

Key Features
* Serves as a concise, tutorial introduction to the field
* Requires very little solid state physics background
* Includes problem sets and references to key papers ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

high TC -SC mrinal
I have not reviewed. plz didn't ge t time....later n I need the book. ... Read more

Product Description
''A good introduction to this field.'' --- IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine, 1998 In The New Superconductors, Frank J. Owens and Charles P. Poole, Jr., offer a descriptive, non-mathematical presentation of the latest superconductors and their properties for the non-specialist.Highlights of this up-to-date text include chapters on superfluidity, the latest copper oxide types, fullerenes, and prospects for future research. The book also features many examples of commercial applications; an extensive glossary that defines superconductivity terms in clear language; and a supplementary list of readings for the interested lay reader. ... Read more

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In the past decade, the mathematics of superconductivity has been the subject of intense study. This book examines in detail the nonlinear Ginzburg–Landau (GL) functional, the model most commonly used. Specifically, cases in the presence of a strong magnetic field and with a sufficiently large GL parameter kappa are covered.

Key topics and features:

*Provides a concrete introduction to techniques in spectral theory and PDEs

*Offers a complete analysis of the two-dimensional GL-functional with large kappa in the presence of a magnetic field

*Treats the three-dimensional case thoroughly

*Includes exercises and open problems

Spectral Methods in Surface Superconductivity is intended for students and researchers with a graduate level understanding of functional analysis, spectral theory, and PDE analysis. Anything which is not standard is recalled as well as important semiclassical techniques in spectral theory that are involved in the nonlinear study of superconductivity.

Product Description
The book describes all basic experimental facts about hightemperature superconductivity of materials, with a criticaltemperature of 30 Kelvin and higher, and explains them microscopicallystarting with a Hamiltonian followed by step-by-step statisticalmechanical calculations. All important theoretical formulas arederived without omitting steps and all basic questions are answered ina manner which is easy to understand. The book is therefore suitableas a textbook for a second-year graduate physics course. Many fresh,and some challenging, ideas are presented and researches in the fieldare invited to examine the text. ... Read more

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This is the second book to RF Superconducting, written by one of the leading experts. The book provides fast and up-to-date access to the latest advances in the key technology for future accelerators.
Experts as well as newcomers to the field will benefit from the discussion of progress in the basic science, technology as well as recent and forthcoming applications. Researchers in accelerator physics will also find much that is relevant to their discipline. ... Read more