Superconductivity—A Brief Survey

The superconducting transition temperatures for selected chemical elements and certain metallic alloys are presented in Table 1. These data and those presented throughout this Chapter have been taken, for the most part, from the excellent compilation by B. W. Roberts (3). 

In Table 2, a brief chronology of certain important discoveries and breakthroughs in the field of superconductivity is outlined. 

Superconductivity has not only been beneficial to science and technology but also has been highly rewarding to its scientists. Thus far, Nobel Prizes in Physics have been awarded on four occasions to scientists working in this area. The first of these was for the discovery of superconductivity by Kamerlingh Onnes, awarded in 1913. In 1972 the prize went to John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and Robert Schrieffer for the BCS theory. The following year (1973), the Prize was awarded to Brian Josephson, L. Esaki and I. Giaever for the 

1 Because of the recent claims of room-temperature superconductivity in materials by several research groups, two additional criteria are further required to certify that a material is superconducting. These are long-term stability, and reproducibility in the preparation and physical property determination, 

Historical Introduction and Crystal Chemistry of Oxide Superconductors 

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