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High-temperature superconductivity in copper oxides arises when a parent insulator compound is doped beyond some critical concentration; what exactly happens at this superconductor–insulator transition is a key open question1. The cleanest approach is to tune the carrier density using the electric field effect2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; for example, it was learned in this way5 that weak electron localization transforms superconducting SrTiO3 into a Fermi-glass insulator. But in the copper oxides this has been a long-standing technical challenge3, because perfect ultrathin films and huge local fields (>109 V m−1) are needed. Recently, such fields have been obtained using electrolytes or ionic liquids in the electric double-layer transistor configuration8, 9, 10. Here we report synthesis of epitaxial films of La2− xSrxCuO4 that are one unit cell thick, and fabrication of double-layer transistors. Very large fields and induced changes in surface carrier density enable shifts in the critical temperature by up to 30 K. Hundreds of resistance versus temperature and carrier density curves were recorded and shown to collapse onto a single function, as predicted for a two-dimensional superconductor–insulator transition11, 12, 13, 14. The observed critical resistance is precisely the quantum resistance for pairs, RQ = h/(2e)2 = 6.45 kΩ, suggestive of a phase transition driven by quantum phase fluctuations, and Cooper pair (de)localization.

We perform quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics molecular dynamics simulations on the [Pt-2(P2O5H2)(4)](4-) (abbreviated PtPOP) complex; in water, dimethylformamide and ethanol. These are used to calculate the ground state X-ray absorption spectrum of the complex. The structural parameters from X-ray spectra are usually extracted using a fit of the experimental data. In such simulations the solvent is neglected meaning that any effect of the local environment will be compensated for by structural changes of the solute, leading to possible discrepancies in the extracted structural parameters. Our simulations show a significant solvent effect on the spectra, which has important implications for the structural analysis of molecules in solution.

The title compound 4a, a purple transient whose main UV-vis absorption band occurs near 490 nm (epsilon = 5000 M-1 cm-1), has been generated by irradiation of 2,3,5,6-tetramethylene-7-oxonorbornane (5a). It has been observed directly by immobilization in frozen matrices or in polymer films and by time-resolved spectroscopy following nanosecond later flash photolysis of the ketone precursor 5a. Although the matrix-immobilized irradiated samples containing biradical 4a show a triplet electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrum at low temperature, some other species is the carrier, since the ESR spectrum persists even after complete photobleaching of the UV-vis spectrum characteristic of 4a. The singlet spin state for biradical 4a, predicted by theory, is confirmed not only by the absence of an ESR spectrum assignable to it but also by the appearance of a C-13 cross-polarization magic angle spinning NMR spectrum (delta = 113 ppm) observed when glassy preparations of 5a-2,3-di-(CH2)-C-13 are irradiated. The rates of dimerization of 4a in fluid media, (1.9-3) x 10(10) M-1 s-1, and the rate of capture by O2, 1.86 x 10(7) M-1 s-1, are also consistent with the behavior expected of a singlet biradical.

We studied the thermal effects on the behavior of incommensurate solid He-4 at low temperatures using the path integral Monte Carlo method. Below a certain temperature, depending on the density and the structure of the crystal, the vacancies delocalize and a finite condensate fraction appears. We calculated the vacancy formation energy as a function of the temperature and observed a behavior compatible with a two-step structure, with a gap of few K appearing at the onset temperature of off-diagonal long-range order. Estimation of the energy cost of creating two vacancies seems to indicate an effective attractive interaction among the vacancies but the large error inherent to its numerical estimation precludes a definitive statement.

We performed bulk-sensitive x-ray absorption (XAS) in the partial fluorescence yield (PFY) mode, and resonant x-ray emission (RXES) measurements of the solid solution Sc (7 at.%):Ce at the Ce L-3 (2p-->5d) and M-4,M-5 (3d-->4f) absorption edges. We deduce an increasing 4f-band hybridization from the gamma-phase stable at room temperature to the low-temperature alpha-Ce, consistent with the "Kondo collapse" scenario for the transition. The enhanced intrinsic resolution of PFY-XAS allows us to resolve the elusive three-peak structure predicted by theory. Thanks to the selective enhancement typical of RXES, we could estimate the small but non-negligible contribution of the f(2) configuration in the hybrid ground state, and its change in the two phases. The linear dichroism effect in the M-4,M-5 RXES spectra is consistent with the observed hybridization of 4f and conduction states.

Molecular heterojunctions, such as the one based on copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and carbon fullerene (C-60) molecules, are commonly employed in organic photovoltaic cells as electron donor-acceptor pairs. We have investigated the different atomic structures and electronic and optical properties of the C-60/CuPc heterojunction through first-principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT. In general, configurations with the CuPc molecule "lying down" on C-60 are energetically more favorable than configurations with the CuPc molecule "standing up". The lying-down configurations also facilitate charge transfer between the two molecules, due to the stronger interaction and the larger overlap between electronic wavefunctions at the interface. The energetically preferred structure consists of CuPc placed so that the Cu atom is above a bridge site of C-60, with one N-Cu-N bond of CuPc being parallel to a C-C bond of C-60. We also considered the structure of a periodic CuPc monolayer deposited on the (001) surface of a face-centered cubic (fcc) crystal of C-60 molecules with the lying-down orientation and on the (111) surface with the standing-up configuration. We find that the first arrangement can lead to larger open circuit voltage due to an enhanced electronic interaction between CuPc and C-60 molecules.

We study the T=0 magnetization of frustrated two-leg spin ladders with arbitrary value of the spin S. In the strong-rung limit, we use degenerate perturbation theory to prove that frustration leads to magnetization plateaus at fractional values of the magnetization for all spins S and to determine the critical ratios of parallel to diagonal inter-rung couplings for the appearance of these plateaus. These ratios depend both on the plateau and on the spin. To confirm these results and to investigate the properties of these ladders away from the strong-coupling limit, we have performed extensive density-matrix renormalization-group calculations for S