Structure and chemistry of superconducting materials - Introduction

The copper oxide superconductors are the latest and in some ways the most exotic of the series of new superconducting materials discovered during many decades of scientific research in the materials aspects of superconductivity. This tutorial lecture, summarized in part in the following, was designed to place the cuprate superconductors, for the non-expert, within the context of the superconducting materials which came before and bring all up to date on the latest developments in cuprates, where even after a decade of intensive research, new materials are being discovered which challenge our understanding.