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Letter

Nature Materials 7, 130–133 (1 February 2008) | doi:10.1038/nmat2084

Electrically driven phase transition in magnetite nanostructures

Sungbae Lee , Alexandra Fursina , John T. Mayo , Cafer T. Yavuz , Vicki L. Colvin , R. G. Sumesh Sofin , Igor V. Shvets & Douglas Natelson

Magnetite (Fe3O4), an archetypal transition-metal oxide, has been used for thousands of years, from lodestones in primitive compasses to a candidate material for magnetoelectronic devices. In 1939, Verwey found that bulk magnetite undergoes a transition at TV|[ap]|120|[thinsp]|K from a high-temperature |[lsquo]|bad metal|[rsquo]| conducting phase to a low-temperature insulating phase.