In addition to the dielectric and magnetic ceramic materials we discussed in earlier modules, there are a few more ceramics which are rather different and exhibit unusual characteristics about which we normally do not find any mention in the standard text books. One such category belongs to high temperature superconductors, which became an intense topic of research after the discovery of superconductivity in an oxide of Ba-La-Cu-O at 40 K¹. This was soon followed by discovery of high temperature superconductivity at 90 K² in another oxide, Y-Ba-Cu-O, whose structure was shown in Module 1. In this module, we discuss some fundamental aspects of superconductivity in general followed by a brief discussion on high temperature superconducting materials which are typically oxide ceramics.

The Module contains:

Suggested Reading:

• Principles of Electronic Ceramics, by L. L. Hench and J. K. West, Wiley