Superconductivity and Magnetism in Organic Metals

MAY 01, 1986

Some new, electrically conducting organic compounds show unexpected physical phenomena such as superconductivity, spin‐density waves and a novel phase transition induced by an applied magnetic field.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881024

Paul M. Chaikin

Richard L. Greene

Seven years ago Klaus Bechgaard of the University of Copenhagen synthesized a family of selenium‐based organic compounds now known as Bechgaard salts (see figure 1). A few months later his collaborators at the University of Paris, Orsay, found these materials to be superconducting below about 1.5 K, culminating the search for organic superconductivity that began in the early 1960s. (See PHYSICS TODAY, February 1981, page 17.)

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More about the Authors

Paul M. Chaikin. University of Pennsylvania and a research, scientist, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, New Jersey.

Richard L. Greene. IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, California.