Intense recent activity in the field of high-temperature superconductivity both in Japan and in the rest of the world was discussed at the First International Symposium on Superconductivity held in Nagoya in August 1988. Current research and development efforts by major Japanese companies in the field of high-temperature superconductivity are reported by leading company scientists, to give an overview of the high level of activity in the area. Progress in the development of new materials and recent theoretical work is reported both from Japanese and international researchers. Contributions are organized by topic, with such topics as crystal chemistry and electronic structure, processing and microstructure, tapes and thick films, wires and coils, and thin film processing and properties. Future applications of superconductivity including magnetic levitation vehicles, electronics based on Josephson junctions, power delivery, energy storage, ship propulsion and magnetic resonance imaging are particularly stressed.

Organic Superconductors is an introduction to organic conductors and superconductors and a review of the current status of the field. First, organic conductors are described, then the structures and electronic properties of organic superconductors are discussed, illustrated with examples of typical compounds. The book deals in detail with theories of the mechanism of superconductivity, and more briefly with spin-density waves. The design, principle, and synthesis of organic superconductors are also described. This second edition covers the research activities of the last few years.

Since the First International Symposium on Superconductivity (ISS '88) was held in Nagoya, Japan in 1988, significant advances have been achieved in a wide range of high temperature superconductivity research. Although the T c's of recently discovered oxide superconductors still do not exceed the record high value of 125K reported before that meeting, the enrichment in the variety of materials should prove useful to the investigation of the fundamental mechanism of superconductiv ity in these exotic materials. The discovery of the n-type superconducting oxides proved to oppose the previously held empirical fact that the charge carriers in all oxide superconductors were holes. In addition, optimization of the charge carrier density has been established as a technique to improve the superconducting proper ties of the previously known oxide materials. Many new experimental and theoreti cal advances have been made in understanding both the fundamental and the applied aspects of high temperature superconductivity. In this latter area, various new processing techniques have been investigated, and the critical current densities and other significant parameters of both bulk and thin film oxide superconductors are rapidly being improved. At this exciting stage of research in high temperature superconductivity, it is extremely important to provide an opportunity for researchers from industry, academia, government and other institutions around the world to freely exchange information and thus contribute to the further advancement of research."