P R E F A C E T O T H E F I R S T E D I T I O N
THIS book is based to a large extent on lectures we have given to undergraduate and first-year postgraduate students. W e intend that it should indeed be an introduction to superconductivity and have selected and presented our material with this in mind. W e do not intend the con- tents to be read as a definitive and exhaustive treatment of superconduc- tivity; several such texts are already published and it h a s not been our intention to compete with these. R a t h e r our object h a s been to explain as clearly as possible the basic phenomena and concepts of superconduct- ivity in a manner which will be understood by those w i t h no previous knowledge of superconductivity and only a modest acquaintance with solid-state physics.
In this book w e have concentrated on the physics of superconductivity and, though we occasionally mention applications, we have not treated these in any detail. W e hope, nevertheless, that this book will be useful b o t h t o " p u r e " p h y s i c i s t s and t o t h o s e i n t e r e s t e d in practical applications. W i t h this in mind, we have used the rationalized M K S system throughout. M a n y of those interested in practical applications will be engineers brought up on the M K S system and, furthermore, M K S units are increasingly used in physics teaching. It seemed to u s that someone should take the plunge and write a book on superconduc- tivity using the M K S system. T h e M K S approach has involved us in some thought about the meaning of  and Ç in superconductors, a point which is discussed in Appendix A.
W e have, of course, d r a w n on other texts on the subject and, in par- ticular, we have made frequent use of Shoenberg's classic monograph Superconductivity. Because our book is an introduction, we have not attempted to include a complete list of references, but have referred to some of the key papers where this seemed appropriate.
W e are grateful to Professor G. Rickayzen and to M r . Ê . E. Osborne for discussing the contents of Chapter 9 and 11, and to those authors w h o allowed us to use the original copies of figures from their
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publications. W e m u s t also thank M r s . Shirley Breen, w h o typed the manuscript and w h o , like Maxwell's daemon, m a d e order where none w a s before. O u r wives and children deserve gratitude for their forebearance during the t i m e this book w a s being written.
University of Manchester E.H.R.
Institute of Science and Technology A.C.R.-I.
July 1968
