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.

  • Letter
  • Published:

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Superconductivity in molecular crystals induced by charge injection

Nature volume 406, pages 702–704 (2000)Cite this article

A Retraction to this article was published on 06 March 2003

Abstract

Progress in the field of superconductivity is often linked to the discovery of new classes of materials, with the layered copper oxides1 being a particularly impressive example. The superconductors known today include a wide spectrum of materials, ranging in complexity from simple elemental metals, to alloys and binary compounds of metals, to multi-component compounds of metals and chalcogens or metalloids, doped fullerenes and organic charge-transfer salts. Here we present a new class of superconductors: insulating organic molecular crystals that are made metallic through charge injection. The first examples are pentacene, tetracene and anthracene, the last having the highest transition temperature, at 4 K. We anticipate that many other organic molecular crystals can also be made superconducting by this method, which will lead to surprising findings in the vast composition space of molecular crystals.

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

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

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

Figure 1
Figure 2: Channel resistance of a pentacene field-effect device at two gate voltages as a function of temperature.
Figure 3: Channel resistance of pentacene, tetracene and anthracene field-effect devices as a function of temperature.
Figure 4: Channel resistance of a pentacene field-effect device as a function of temperature and gate bias.
Figure 5: Channel resistance of a pentacene field-effect device as function of temperature and magnetic field (perpendicular to the channel).

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Bednorz, J. G. & Müller, K. A. Possible high Tc superconductivity in the Ba-La-Cu-O system. Z. Phys. B 64, 189–193 (1986).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Glover, R. E. & Sherill, M. D. Changes in superconducting critical temperature produced by electrostatic charging. Phys. Rev. Lett. 5, 248–250 ( 1960).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Mannhart, J., Ströbel, J., Bednorz, J. G. & Gerber, Ch. Large electric field effects in YBa2Cu3O7-δ films containing weak links. Appl. Phys. Lett. 62, 630–632 (1993).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Konsin, P. & Sorkin, B. Electric field effects in high T c cuprates. Phys. Rev. B 58, 5795– 5802 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Ahn, C. H. et al. Electrostatic modulation of superconductivity in ultrathin GdBa 2Cu3O7-x films. Science 284, 1152–1155 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Schön, J. H., Kloc, Ch., Haddon, R. C. & Batlogg, B. A superconducting field-effect switch. Science 288, 656– 658 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Schön, J. H., Berg, S., Kloc, Ch. & Batlogg, B. Ambipolar pentacene field-effect transistors and inverters. Science 287 , 1022–1023 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Silinsh, E. A. & Capek, V. Organic Molecular Crystals (AIP, New York, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Devos, A. & Lannoo, M. Electron-phonon coupling for aromatic molecular crystals: possible consequences for their superconductivity. Phys. Rev. B 58, 8236–8239 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Jerome, D., Mazaud, A., Ribault, M. & Beechgard, K. Superconductivity in a synthetic organic conductor (TMTSF)2PF6. J. Phys. Lett. 41, L95–L98 (1980).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Ishiguro, T., Yamaji, K. & Saito, G. Organic Superconductors (Springer, Berlin, 1998).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  12. Warta, W. & Karl, N. Hot holes in naphtalene: High, electric-field dependent mobilities. Phys. Rev. B 32, 1172 –1182 (1985).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Warta, W., Stehle, R. & Karl, N. Ultrapure, high mobility organic photoconductors. Appl. Phys. A 36, 163–170 (1985).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Kivelson, S. & Chapman, O. L. Polyacene and a new class of quasi-one dimensional conductors. Phys. Rev. B 28, 7236–7243 (1983).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Mishima, A. & Kimura, M. Superconductivity of the quasi-one-dimensional semiconductor polyacene. Synth. Met. 11, 75–84 (1985).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Ginzburg, V. L. The problem of high temperature superconductivity. Contemp. Phys. 9, 355–374 ( 1968).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Kloc, Ch., Simpkins, P. G., Siegrist, T. & Laudise, R. A. Physical vapor growth of centimeter-sized crystals of α-hexathiophene. J. Cryst. Growth 182, 416– 427 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Schön, J. H., Kloc, Ch. & Batlogg, B. Fractional quantum Hall effect in organic molecular semiconductors. Science. 288, 2338– 2340 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Dodabalapur, A., Torsi, L. & Katz, H. E. Organic transistors: Two-dimensional transport and improved electrical characteristics. Science 268, 270–271 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank E. Bucher for use of equipment, and H. Y. Hwang, D. W. Murphy, H. Störmer and C. M. Varma for discussions. J.H.S. was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, 07974-0636 , New Jersey, USA

    J. H. Schön, Ch. Kloc & B. Batlogg

Authors
  1. J. H. Schön
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ch. Kloc
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. B. Batlogg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to B. Batlogg.

Additional information

Several papers were recently the subject of an independent investigation conducted at the behest of Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies. The independent committee reviewed concerns related to the validity of data associated with the device measurements described in those papers. As a result of the committee's findings, we have issued retractions of those papers. Furthermore, because of the extensive and serious nature of the committee's findings relating to the manuscripts that they examined, we are additionally concerned about aspects of the data presented in this paper. As we cannot vouch for the validity of the data, we wish to withdraw our support for the paper and issue a retraction. The first author of this paper (J.H.S.), who was responsible for most of the experimental work, wishes to be dissociated from this retraction because he believes in the science presented in this manuscript.

About this article

Cite this article

Schön, J., Kloc, C. & Batlogg, B. RETRACTED ARTICLE: Superconductivity in molecular crystals induced by charge injection. Nature 406, 702–704 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35021011

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35021011

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

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