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This book contains papers presented at the International Conference on Organic Superconductivity which was held May 20-24, 1990, at the Stanford Sierra Conference Center, South Lake Tahoe, California. In the twenty years since the First Conference on Organic Superconductivity was held (Hawaii, 1969), there has been remarkable progress in the field. At present, development is accelerating with contributions from many groups in many countries worldwide. The discovery of high Tc superconductivity by G. Bednorz and K. Muller in 1986 and subsequent developments in the ceramic superconductors have had an enormous impact on the field of superconductivity as a whole. This discovery occurred in an area entirely different from that of conventional superconduc­ tivity, underscoring the importance of the search for and study of novel materials of all kinds. We believe that the organics, with their wide range of structural, chemical, and physical properties, belong in this category of novel materials. This book reflects the efforts of researchers from various disciplines: physicists, chemists, and materials scientists. It addresses the normal and superconducting properties of organic materials, as well as the search for new compounds and new syntheses. We are pleased to note that one of these papers reports on the discovery of a new organic superconductor with a record high Tc in this class. One chapter is devoted to a comparison of organic superconductors and the cuprates, another, to the prospects of discovering other novel conducting or superconducting compounds.

The Novel Mechanisms of Superconductivity Conference was initially conceived in the early part of 1986 as a small, 2-1/2 day workshop of 40-70 scientists, both theorists and experimentalists interested in exploring the possible evidence for exotic, non phononic superconductivity. Of course, the historic discoveries of high temperature oxide superconductors by Bednorz and Mftller and the subsequent enhancements by the Houston/Alabama groups made such a small conference impractical. The conference necessarily had to expand, 2-1/2 days became 4-1/2 days and superconductivity in the high Tc oxides became the largest single topic in the workshop. In fact, this conference became the first major conference on this topic and thus, these proceedings are also the first maj or publication. However, heavy fermion, organic and low carrier concentration superconductors remained a very important part of this workshop and articles by the leaders in these fields are included in these proceedings. Ultimately the workshop hosted rearly 400 scientists, students and media including representatives from the maj or research groups in the U.S., Europe, Japan and the Soviet Union.