Organic Superconductors

The initial impetus for the search for an organic superconductor was the proposal of the existence of a polymer superconductor with a high critical temperature (Tc). This spurred on activities having the aim of synthesizing and characterizing organic conductors, which had already been going on for two decades. These efforts have resulted in the thriving field of low­ dimensional conductors and superconductors. This monograph is intended to be an introduction to and review of the study of organic conductors and superconductors. The investigations are to warrant a treatise of some length. At the same time sufficiently rich they have produced a few active subfields, each containing exciting topics. This situation seems to necessitate a monograph describing the current status of the field for both researchers and newcomers to the field. Such a need may also be felt by scientists engaged in the study of the high-Tc oxide superconductors for comparison of the two kinds of new supercon­ ductors, which share some important aspects, for example, the low-dimen­ sionality and the competition or coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism. However, available experimental and theoretical results are sometimes conflicting and have not yet been arranged into a coherent standard picture of the whole field. Further developments are continually being reported and therefore it is still premature to write a textbook about some of the topics. However, we have tried to include discussions of recent topics in this volume.