| Literature DB >> 27878017 |
Abstract
Last century witnessed the birth of semiconductor electronics and nanotechnology. The physics behind these revolutionary developments is certain quantum mechanical behaviour of 'impurity state electrons' in crystalline 'band insulators', such as Si, Ge, GaAs and GaN, arising from intentionally added (doped) impurities. The present article proposes that certain collective quantum behaviour of these impurity state electrons, arising from Coulomb repulsions, could lead to superconductivity in a parent band insulator, in a way not suspected before. Impurity band resonating valence bond theory of superconductivity in boron doped diamond, recently proposed by us, suggests possibility of superconductivity emerging from impurity band Mott insulators. We use certain key ideas and insights from the field of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates and organics. Our suggestion also offers new possibilities in the field of semiconductor electronics and nanotechnology. The current level of sophistication in solid state technology and combinatorial materials science is very well capable of realizing our proposal and discover new superconductors.Entities:
Keywords: Mott insulators; cuprates; diamond; resonating valence bond; superconductivity
Year: 2009 PMID: 27878017 PMCID: PMC5099631 DOI: 10.1088/1468-6996/9/4/044104
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Sci Technol Adv Mater ISSN: 1468-6996 Impact factor: 8.090