"Iron-based layered superconductor: LaOFeP," by Yoichi Kamihara and 6 others, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 128(31): 10012-3, 9 August 2006.

[Authors' affiliation: Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan]

From the introduction: "Since the discovery of high transition temperature (Tc) superconductivity in layered copper-based oxides, extensive efforts have been devoted to the exploration of new material systems containing transition metal ions other than copper in a hope to realize higher transition temperatures because it is widely believed that the high Tc values of the copper oxides are related to the strong electron correlation associated with the transition metal ions. Further, researchers have focused mostly on layered structures due to a freedom to control the carrier density in the transition metal oxide layer. These efforts have led to the discoveries of several novel superconductors....Although their Tc's are much lower than those of the copper oxides, the discoveries of
superconductivity in the new material systems provide valuable knowledge for understanding physics underlying the oxide superconductors as well as for finding an approach to a novel high Tc superconductor. Here we report a new class of superconductor, an iron-based layered oxy-pnictide LaOFeP. LaOFeP is composed of an alternate stack of lanthanum oxide and iron pnictide layers...."

This 2006 report from the Journal of the American Chemical Society was cited 26 times in current journal articles indexed by Thomson Reuters during July-August 2008. During that two-month period, this was the third-most-cited chemistry paper published in the last two years, aside from reviews. (Three of the same authors also account for what is currently the #1 most-cited non-review paper in chemistry, a 2008 follow-up to the above report, also discussing iron-based superconductivity: Y. Kamihara, et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 130[11]: 3296-7, 2008.) Prior to the most recent bimonthly count, citations to the 2006 paper have accrued as follows:

May-June 2008: 12 citations
March-April 2008: 3
January-February 2008: 2
September-October 2007: 2
July-August 2007: 2
March-April 2007: 2
January-February 2007: 1

Total citations to date: 50

SOURCE: Hot Papers Database (Included with a subscription to the print newsletter Science Watch^®, available from the Research Services Group of Thomson Reuters. Packaged on a CD that is mailed with each Science Watch issue, the Hot Papers Database contains data on hundreds of highly cited papers published during the last two years. User interface permits searching by author, organization, journal, field, and more. Total citations, as well as citations accrued during successive bimonthly periods, can be assessed and graphed. An updated CD containing the most recent bimonthly data is mailed with every new issue of Science Watch, six times a year. The CD also includes an electronic version of the Science Watch issue in HTML format, for personal desktop access.