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High T_c oxide superconductors such as Bi(Pb)-Sr-Ca-Cu-O (BSCCO) and Y-Ba-Cu-O (YBCO) systems are usually fabricated by sintering given mixtures of raw materials. Generally, sintering processing takes a longer heating time and the products are mechanically low strength and cannot be formed into complex shapes such as a coil, a curved fine tube or a fine rod. Another way to produce the ceramics is a glass-ceramic process in which the glasses prepared by melt-quenching are reheated for crystallization. A given mixture of raw materials in BSCCO is easily melted and quenched to form a given shape of glass, while that in YBCO is not glassified.

This invaluable book has been written by authors from five countries. It presents a unique way to fabricate superconducting ceramics in BSCCO by glass-ceramic processing.