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Nature Materials 7, 350 - 351 (2008)
doi:10.1038/nmat2173

Fullerides: Superconductivity at the limit

Thomas T. M. Palstra1

  1. Thomas T. M. Palstra is at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, 9747 AG, Groningen, The Netherlands.
    e-mail: t.t.m.palstra@rug.nl

The successful synthesis of highly crystalline Cs3C60, exhibiting superconductivity up to a record temperature for fullerides of 38 K, demonstrates a powerful synthetic route for investigating the origin of superconductivity in this class of materials.

Since the discovery in 1991 of superconductivity in doped C60 fullerides1, these materials have been considered to be a classical example of superconductors in which the electrons couple in pairs due to electron–phonon interactions, as described by the BCS (Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer) theory. The BCS theory provides analytical relationships between the transition temperature Tc (below which the material is in the superconducting state), the density of states of the electrons, and the vibrational modes.