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Charge‐Density‐Wave Conductors

MAY 01, 1996
Low‐dimensional metals with moving lattice modulations display a host of unusual properties, including gigantic dielectric constants and the ability to ‘remember’ electrical pulse lengths.
Robert E. Thorne

When metals are cooled, they often undergo a phase transition to a state exhibiting a new type of order. Metals such as iron and nickel become ferromagnetic below temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius; electron spins order to produce a net magnetization in zero field. Other metals, such as lead and aluminum, become superconductors at cryogenic temperatures; electrons form Cooper pairs of opposite spin and momentum, leading to electrical conduction with zero resistance and to expulsion of magnetic fields.

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References

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More about the authors

Robert E. Thorne, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 49, Number 5

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