Physics and Chemistry of Low-Dimensional Inorganic Conductors: (354 NATO Science Series B:)

The field of low-dimensional conductors has been very active for more than twenty years. It has grown continuously and both the inorganic and organic materials have remark­ able properties, such as charge and spin density waves and superconductivity. The discovery of superconductivity at high temperature in copper-based quasi two-dimensional conducting oxides nearly ten years ago has further enlarged the field and stimulated new research on inorganic conductors. It was obviously impossible to cover such a broad field in a ten day Institute and it seemed pertinent to concentrate on inorganic conductors, excluding the high Tc superconducting oxides. In this context, it was highly desirable to include both physics and chemistry in the same Institute in order to tighten or in some cases to establish links between physicists and chemists. This Advanced Study Institute is the continuation of a series of similar ones which have taken place every few years since 1974. 73 participants coming from 13 countries have taken part in this School at the beautiful site of the Centre de Physique des Houches in the Mont-Blanc mountain range. The scientific programme included more than forty lectures and seminars, two poster sessions and ten short talks. Several discussion sessions were organized for the evenings, one on New Materials, one on New Topics and one on the special problem of the Fermi and Luttinger liquids. The scientific activity was kept high from the beginning to the end of the Institute.

Table of Contents:
Materials and Chemistry.- 1. An Introduction to the Design of Low-Dimensional Solids.- 2. Molybdenum and Tungsten Bronzes: Low-Dimensional Metals with Unusual Properties.- 3. Nanostructures of Low Dimensional Oxides: Nature and Role of Defects.- 4. Misfit Layer Compounds (MX)1+x(TX2)m M= Pb, Bi, Sn; T = Ti, V, Cr, Ta, Nb; X = S, Se; 0.08Low-Dimensional Metals.- Thermal Properties and Excitations.- 21. Thermal Lattice Fluctuations in Quasi One-Dimensional Conductors: Optical Experiments.- 22. Elastic and Thermal Properties of Low-Dimensional Conductors.- 23. Glassy Behaviour and Metastability in the Charge or Spin Density Wave State.- Dynamics of Charge and Spin Density Waves: Non Linear Transport, Dislocations and Plasticity.- 24. Introduction to Charge Density Wave Transport: Basic Phenomena and Models.- 25. Theory of Charge and Spin Density Wave Transport.- 26. Dislocations in the Charge Density Wave State of NbSe3:1 Phase Slip Properties.- 27. Dislocations in the Charge Density Wave State of NbSe3: II Bulk Charge Density Wave Transport.- 28. Charge Density Wave Dynamics in the Blue Bronzes A0.30MoO3 (A=K, Rb).- 29. Photoinduced Properties of Charge Density Wave Materials.- 30. Spatially-Resolved Studies of Charge Density Wave Deformations and Phase Slip in NbSe3.- 31. Intrinsic Defects and Plasticity in Charge and Spin Density Waves.- Participants Photo.