Advances through carefully conducted quantitative work onwell designed, high quality materials characterize thepresent state of high-temperature superconductivityresearch. The contributions to this volume present atheoretical and experimental overview of electronicstructure and physical properties, including anisotropicfeatures, of high-temperative materials, with a focus oncuprates.In order to enhance the understanding of the mechanisms ofsuperconductivity at high temperatures, this volume isdivided into theoretical and experimental parts. Thecontributions to the two parts correspond to each othergiving readers involved in either area of research activitya reference to findingsof the other.On the other hand, this book gives young physicistshigh-level information on the present state of researchenhanced by tutorial contributions of leading physicists inthe field.

I Plenary Lecture.- The Pairing Theory - Its Physical Basis and Its Consequences.- II Theory.- II.1 Electronic Structure.- Electronic Excitations Within the Cu-0 Planes.- Physical Parameters in High-Temperature Superconductors.- Binding and Structural Aspects of High-Tc Superconductivity.- Electronic State in Oxide Superconductors.- Key Factors for the Superconducting and Normal State Properties of Cuprates.- Evidence in Favor of a Nematic Ordering in La2CuO4+?.- II.2 Physical Properties.- Strong Correlation Models for High-Tc Superconductors.- On the Spin Excitations of High-Tc Oxides.- Gauge Field Theory of the Normal State Properties of High-Tc Superconductors.- Microscopic Theory of Luttinger Liquids in One Dimension.- II.3 Superconducting Mechanism and Properties.- Generalization of BCS Superconductivity to Non-Phonon Mediated Interactions: The Excitonic Interaction.- Formation, Motion, and Superconductivity of Large Bipolarons.- Application of Marginal Fermi-Liquid Phenomenology to the Superconductive State of Cu-O Materials.- Antiferromagnetic Fluctuations in High-Tc Oxides.- The Physics Underlying High-Tc Superconductivity: Novel vs Exotic.- A (Very) Brief Overview of Semionic Superconductivity.- Fluctuations in Type-II Superconductors: A Dense Vortex Plasma Picture.- III Experiment.- III.I Materials.- Material Design of High-Tc Oxides.- High Pressure Synthesis and Characterization of Single Crystalline YBa2Cu4O8(Tc = 80 K) and Y2Ba4Cu7O15±x (14 K ? Tc ? 94 K).- III.2 Physical Properties and Electronic Structure.- Physical Properties of Cuprate Superconductors: An Introduction.- Successive Structural Transitions of La2?xBaxCuO4.- The Normal-State Transport Properties of the High-Temperature Cuprate Superconductors.- Optical Properties ofHigh-Temperature Superconductors.- An Introduction to Infrared Properties of High-Tc Superconductors.- Electronic Structure Studies of Cuprate Superconductors by High-Energy Spectroscopy.- Angle-Resolved Photoemission, Inverse Photoemission, and X-Ray Absorption Studies of Superconductive and Non-Superconductive Bi-Sr-Ca-Y-Cu-O.- Electronic Structure of Electron- and Hole-Doped 3d Transition-Metal Oxides.- Anisotropy of Cuprate Superconductors Under STM/STS.- Unusual (Anomalous) Properties of the Normal and Superconducting State of Cu-Oxides.- III.3 Anisotropic Properties.- Anisotropy in Elastic Properties of HTSC Seen by Ultrasonics.- Some Consequences of Anisotropy.- Anisotropic Properties of Layered Superconductors.- Thin Films and Superlattices of High-Tc Superconductors.- III.4 Superconducting Properties.- Critical Currents in High-Tc Superconductors.- Anisotropy of Flux Lattice Structures in the Low Field Mixed State of the High-Tc Superconductor BSCCO (2212).- Some Implications of a Short Coherence Length in High-Temperature Superconductors.- Flux Quantisation in Superconducting Rings and the Mixed State.- Flux Quantisation and Its Application to rf and dc SQUIDs.- Index of Contributors.