"Iron-based layered superconductor La[O1-xFx]FeAs (x = -.05 - 0.12) with Tc = 26 K," Yoichi Kamihara, Takumi Watanabe, Masahiro Hirano, and Hideo Hosono, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 130(11): 3296-7, 19 March 2008.

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

From the introduction: "Discovery of the copper-based superconductor La2-xBaxCuO4 with a high transistion temperature (Tc) triggered extensive research with the intention of developing new transition-metal-based superconductors. Currently, high Tc superconductors are limited to layered perovskites that contain
CuO2 structural units as the conduction layers. However, the Tc of the non-Cu-based superconductors in this category has remained low, although spin triplet superconductivity has been found in UPt3 (Tc ~ 0.64 K) and Sr2-RuO4 (Tc ~ 1.4 K). Here, we report a layered iron-based compound, LaOFeAs, which undergoes superconducting transition under doping with F- ions at the O2- site. Its Tc exhibits a trapezoidal shape dependence on F- content, with the highest Tc of ~26 K at 5-11 atoms %. Further, its magnetic susceptibility indicates that F-doped LaOFeAs exhibits Curie-Weiss-like behavior in the normal conducting state."

This 2008 report from the Journal of the American Chemical Society was cited 20 times in current journal articles indexed by Thomson Reuters during May-June 2008. Thanks to its latest two-month total (a particularly impressive number, given that the paper was published just prior to the May-June count), this is currently the second-most-cited chemistry paper published in the last two years, aside from reviews. At the time of the May-June Hot Papers tally, the report's citations had accrued as follows:

March-April 2008: 1 citation

Total citations to date: 21

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.