Developments in high temperature superconductivity

The past four years (1997–2001) have seen many exciting developments in high temperature superconductivity, most notably the discovery of the superconducting nature of magnesium boride in 2001 and the amazing critical temperatures of 52 K, then 117 K, achieved in 2000 by hole doping C60 fullerenes through incorporation into a field effect transistor (FET). Steady progress has also been made in understanding the recently discovered rutheno-cuprate superconducting ferromagnets. Theoretical work over this period has been focused on understanding the pseudogap in high temperature superconductors and on determining the mechanism behind superconductivity in MgB2.