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‘Aromatic hydrocarbon’ implies an organic molecule that satisfies the (4 n + 2) π-electron rule and consists of benzene rings. Doping solid aromatic hydrocarbons with metals provides the superconductivity. The first discovery of such superconductivity was made for K-doped picene (K x picene, five benzene rings). Its superconducting transition temperatures ( T c ’s) were 7 and 18 K. Recently, we found a new superconducting K x picene phase with a T c as high as 14 K, so we now know that K x picene possesses multiple superconducting phases. Besides K x picene, we discovered new superconductors such as Rb x picene and Ca x picene. A most serious problem is that the shielding fraction is ⩽15% for K x picene and Rb x picene, and it is often ∼1% for other superconductors. Such low shielding fractions have made it difficult to determine the crystal structures of superconducting phases. Nevertheless, many research groups have expended a great deal of effort to make high quality hydrocarbon superconductors in the five years since the discovery of hydrocarbon superconductivity. At the present stage, superconductivity is observed in certain metal-doped aromatic hydrocarbons (picene, phenanthrene and dibenzopentacene), but the shielding fraction remains stubbornly low. The highest priority research area is to prepare aromatic superconductors with a high superconducting volume-fraction. Despite these difficulties, aromatic superconductivity is still a core research target and presents interesting and potentially breakthrough challenges, such as the positive pressure dependence of T c that is clearly observed in some phases of aromatic hydrocarbon superconductors, suggesting behavior not explained by the standard BCS picture of superconductivity. In this article, we describe the present status of this research field, and discuss its future prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transistor characteristics are studied for field-effect transistors (FETs) with thin films of [6]phenacene, which has six benzene rings and W-shape structure. The molecular alignment preferable for FET transport is found to be formed in [6]phenacene thin films. The transistor shows clear p-channel FET characteristics with field-effect mobility μ as high as 3.7 cm2 V-1 s-1. The similar O2 sensing properties to picene FET are observed in [6]phenacene thin film FET. The bias stress properties are observed in [6]phenacene thin film FET. The pulse-voltage application suppresses the bias-stress effect and it enables a continuous O2 sensing in [6]phenacene FET. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]