Superconductivity and Magnetism in Skutterudites

Superconductivity and Magnetism in Skutterudites discusses superconducting and magnetic properties of a class of materials called skutterudites. With a brief introduction of the fundamental structural features of skutterudites, the book then provides a detailed assessment of the superconducting and magnetic properties, focusing particularly on the rare earth-filled skutterudites where a plethora of fascinating properties and ground states is realized due to interactions of the filler species with the framework ions. Such interactions underpin the exciting forms of superconductivity and magnetism, most notably realized in the exotic heavy fermion superconductor of composition PrOs4Sb12. The two main topics of superconductivity and magnetism are provided with a concise introduction of superconducting and magnetic properties so that a reader can appreciate and understand the main arguments in the text. This book would appeal to graduate students, postdoctoral students, and anyone interested in superconducting and magnetic properties of a large family of minerals called skutterudites.

Key Features:
? Gives a thorough account of the superconducting and magnetic properties of skutterudites.
? Each topic is accompanied by introductory sections to assist in the understanding of the text.
? Supported by numerous figures and all key references.

Ctirad Uher is a C. Wilbur Peters Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He earned his BSc in physics with the University Medal from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He carried out his graduate studies at the same institution under Professor H. J. Goldsmid on the topic of ‘Thermomagnetic effects in bismuth and its dilute alloys’, and received his PhD in 1975. He then accepted a postdoctoral position at Michigan State University, where he worked with Profs. W. P. Pratt, P. A. Schroeder, and J. Bass on transport properties at ultra-low temperatures. In 1978, Professor Uher was awarded the prestigious Queen Elizabeth II Research Fellowship, which he spent at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), National Measurement Laboratory (NML), in Sydney. Professor Uher started his academic career in 1980 as an assistant professor of physics at the University of Michigan. He progressed through the ranks and became full professor in 1989. That same year the University of New South Wales awarded him the title of DSc for his work on transport properties of semimetals. At the University of Michigan, he served as an associate chair of the Department of Physics and subsequently as an associate dean for research at the College of Literature, Sciences and Arts. In 1994, he was appointed as chair of physics, the post he held for the next 10 years. Professor Uher has had over 45 years of research, described in more than 530 refereed publications in the areas of transport properties of solids, superconductivity, diluted magnetic semiconductors, and thermoelectricity. In the field of thermoelectricity, to which he returned during the past 25 years, he worked on the development of skutterudites, half-Heusler alloys, modified lead telluride materials, magnesium silicide solid solutions, tetrahedrites, and Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)–grown thin films forms of Bi2Te3-based materials. He has