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♤ High-temperature superconductors (high-Tc or HTS) are materials that behave as superconductors at unusually high temperatures. The first high-Tc superconductor was discovered in 1986 by IBM researchers Karl Müller and Johannes Bednorz, who were awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics "for their important break-through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials".
♤ Whereas "ordinary" or metallic superconductors usually have transition temperatures (temperatures below which they superconduct) of about 30 K (−243.2 °C), HTS superconductors have been observed with transition temperatures as high as 138 K (−135 °C). Until recently, only certain compounds of copper and oxygen (so-called "cuprates") were believed to have HTS properties, and the term high- temperature superconductor was used interchangeably with cuprate superconductor. However, several Iron based compounds are now known to be superconducting at high temperatures.
♤ The high temperature superconductors represent a new class of materials which bear extraordinary superconducting and magnetic properties and great potential for wide-ranging technological applications. The importance of understanding the transport and magnetic behaviors of these novel materials is two-fold. First, it could lead to a better understanding of the basic phenomena of
superconductivity in these materials. Second, it could provide ways to improve the magnetic quality of the presently known materials by enhancing flux pinning in a controllable manner.