Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Organic materials

From insulator to superconductor

Nature volume 406, pages 687–688 (2000)Cite this article

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

There is a retraction (06 March 2003) associated with the Letter to Nature that is the subject of this article. Please click here to view.

The discovery in the late 1970s that certain types of polymeric material1 can conduct electricity almost as efficiently as copper wire paved the way for light-emitting diodes, electrical sensors and even rechargeable batteries made entirely from plastics. This success sparked general interest in electronic devices made from cheap organic materials, such as organic superconductors2. In a superconductor, electrons bind together to form Cooper pairs that carry current without resistance at sufficiently low temperatures. On page 702 of this issue3, Batlogg and his colleagues describe how to make superconducting transistors from anthracene, tetracene and pentacene. Under normal conditions, these simple organic materials are insulators, but they can be converted into superconductors simply by injecting them with charge and lowering the temperature.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: What lies behind the superconductivity of organic materials, such as polyacenes (anthracene) and fullerenes (C60)?

References

  1. Chiang, C. K. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 39, 1098– 1101 (1977).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Little, W. A. J. Phys. (Paris) Coll. 44, 819–825 (1983).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Schön, J. H., Kloc, C. & Batlogg, B. Nature 406, 702– 704 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Laughlin, R. B. Phys. Rev. Lett. 50, 873–876 (1983).

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. Schön, J. H., Kloc, C. & Batlogg, B. Science 288, 2338– 2340 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Schön, J. H., Kloc, C., Haddon, R. C. & Batlogg, B. Science 288, 656–658 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Gunnarsson, O. Rev. Mod. Phys. 69, 575 (1997 ).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Devos, A. & Lannoo, M. Phys. Rev. B 58, 8236–8239 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Phillips, P. et al. Nature 395, 253–257 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Laughlin, R. B. & Pines, D. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 97, 28–31 ( 2000).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Belitz, D. & Kirkpatrick, T. Phys. Rev. B 58, 8214–8217 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Zhang, F.-C & Rice, T. M. http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/cond-mat/9708050

  13. Sarachik, M. P. & Kravchenko, S. V. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 96, 5900–5902 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Mason, N. & Kapitulnik A. Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 5341–5344 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Loomis Laboratory of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1100 W. Green Street , Urbana, 61801-3080, Illinois, USA

    Philip Phillips

Authors
  1. Philip Phillips
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Philip Phillips.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Phillips, P. From insulator to superconductor. Nature 406, 687–688 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35021170

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35021170

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing