The first five years of high-Tc superconductivity
Abstract
After the 1986 discovery and confirmation of superconductivity in doped La2CuO4, a "gold rush" occurred in the following year when the transition temperature in YBa2Cu3O7-δ exceeded the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. In 1988, even higher Tc's were reported in new compounds without rare-earth ions. The preparation techniques started to be improved substantially and results on scholarly conducted experiments became available. Since then, the data obtained with different techniques fitted together like pieces of a puzzle, and continue to do so. Early in 1987, high critical magnetic fields and currents were reported in epitaxial films and single crystals. This opened the way for application-oriented research and has led to first true successes in 1990/91. The following is a near verbal transcript of my presentation. © 1991.