Given the Debye temperature of an elemental superconductor (SC) and its Tc, BCS theory enables one to predict the value of its gap Δ0 at T = 0, or vice versa.

Since the discovery of superconductivity, a great number of theoretical and experimental efforts have been made to describe this new phase of matter that emerge

This thesis makes significant advances towards an understanding of superconductivity in the cuprate family of unconventional, high-temperature superconductors.