Lattice vibrations in the ceramic superconductors

Abstract

Motivated by the still open question about the mechanism of superconductivity in the high-T_c ceramics, a considerable effort has been devoted to studies of the lattice dynamics in these materials in order to search for finger-prints of a strong electron phonon interaction. Numerous investigations on high-T_c materials and their non-super-conducting reference compounds have been performed by both optical methods and neutron scattering. In this article, a brief review is given on inelastic neutron scattering stud-ies carried out at Karlsruhe in collaboration with several other laboratories.