Customer Reviews

Introduction to Superconductivity, Second Edition (International Series in Solid State Physics; V. 6)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I cannot help associating this book to the A,B,C of Superconductivity. I remember that, during the ICTP Workshops on High Tc superconductors around 1990, the book immediately dissapeared from the shelves at the ICTP library: too many people from other fields were introducing themselves in the -then fashionable-subject of superconductors. In particular, the book's attempt to make BCS theory understandable is notorious. Generally speaking, all the subjects are treated with simplicity and rigor, and some of them (as transport currents in the mixed state of type II superconductors) are approached in a specially comprehensible fashion. The use of the pendulum analogue for Josephson devices is very convenient to "hook" the reader. If I don't give it five stars, it is because much newer books as "Foundations of Applied Superconductivity", by Orlando and Delin (1991) are more updated introductions to the subject. However, "Introduction to Superconductivity" is still perhaps the winner of the 100-meter-run in Superconductivity.

This amazingly simple book can almost be read as the bedtime story of superconductivity. It introduces the reader to most of the key concepts of superconductivity, using simple physical concepts, without going through complicated formalism. I would recommend that every student of superconductivity reads this book before embarking on a more formal course of supercnductivity.