INTRODUCTION AND AN OVERVIEW OF SOME RECENT PROGRESS

The field of high temperature superconductivity (HTS) is approaching its tenth birthday. The first publication in this area of research appeared in September, 1986.¹ Many scientists became aware of the discovery of the first high temperature superconductor at a meeting of the Materials Research Society in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. early in December, 1986; others first found out about the discovery by reading the New York Times on December 31, 1986. In the years since 1987, much progress has been made in our understanding of HTS. This, the fifth volume in this series, reports on recent progress (The contents of the previous volumes are listed in the Appendix of this book.)…