Premium
Superconducting diamond: an introduction
Author(s) -
Bustarret E.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.200777501
Subject(s) - superconductivity , diamond , condensed matter physics , surprise , engineering physics , semiconductor , nanotechnology , materials science , physics , optoelectronics , metallurgy , psychology , social psychology
Even though the early observations of superconductivity in semiconductors were considered in the 1960's to confirm the validity of the BCS model, the recent experimental discovery of superconductivity in boron‐doped diamond came as a major surprise both to the diamond and to the superconducting materials communities. In less than three years, much has been learned on this interesting system. We review here the main results of this effort and identify some of the questions remaining open. In particular, we point out that the superconducting behaviour remains of a conventional type quite close to the insulator‐to‐metal transition, and we propose that doped diamond is a potential model‐system for the study of electronic phase transitions. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)