Abstract

The discovery of cuprate high-temperature superconductors (HTS) by Bednorz and Mueller in 1986 [1] brought about a revolution in both materials development and in the techniques used to characterize them. Coming as it did at a time when interest and funding investment in superconductivity was in decline, the discovery of HTS injected a huge resurgence of research activity and the establishment of national programs directed toward a coordinated, multidisciplinary, multi-institutional approach to investigating, understanding and exploiting HTS. The study of HTS has greatly enhanced the sensitivity of techniques like angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) and promoted the shift from synchrotron-based ARPES to laser-based ARPES with its higher resolution and greater probing depth. The promise of applications has also accelerated the development of refrigerator systems, both in terms of efficiency and miniaturization.