Physics Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Highlights at Physics Illinois

Organic Materials: From Insulator to Superconductor

electron-phonon coupling
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What lies behind the superconductivity of organic materials, such as polyacenes (
anthracene) and fullerenes (C60)? Professor Philip Phillips believes that a clue might be provided by the electron-phonon coupling—the "glue" that binds electrons into superconducting Cooper pairs. The electron-phonon coupling constant for a series of organic semiconductors is shown as a function of the number of p-electrons associated with their carbon rings.

A more complete discussion of this topic, see P.W. Phillips, "Organic materials: From insulator to superconductor," Nature 406, 687–688 (August 17, 2000).

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