“…A technique has been known to substitute a cation with different chemical valence for the host cation in the oxide in order to change the chemical valence of the transition metal ion. The technique has quite often been used in the researches for the superconducting oxides, e.g., M x La 2Àx CuO 4Ày (M = Ba, Sr, Ca, Na) (1)(2)(3) and Ce x Ln 2Àx CuO 4Ày (Ln = Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu) (4)(5)(6). In these cases, La 2 CuO 4 and Ln 2 CuO 4 (Ln = Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu) are called the Mott insulator (7).…”