Thediscoveryofhightemperaturesuperconductors(HTS)in 1986bytwoIBM scientists led to an unprecedented explosion of research and development efforts world-wide because of the signi?cant potential for practical applications offered by these materials. However, the early euphoria created by the exciting prospects was dampenedby the dauntingtask of fabricating these materials into useful forms with acceptablesuperconductingproperties. Progresstowardsthisgoalhasbeen hindered by many intrinsic materials problems, such as weak-links, ?ux-creep, and poor - chanicalproperties....