We report the first experimental evidence for a metallic phase in fluid molecular oxygen. Our electrical conductivity measurements of fluid oxygen under dynamic quasi-isentropic compression show that a nonmetal-metal transition occurs at 3.4 fold compression, 4500 K, and 1.2 Mbar. We discuss the main features of the electrical conductivity dependence on density and temperature and give an inter...

The electrical conductance of epitaxial Bi thin films grown on BaF(2)(111) by molecular beam epitaxy has been systematically investigated as a function of both film thickness (4-540 nm) and temperature (5-300 K). Unlike bulk Bi as a prototypical semimetal, the Bi thin films up to 90 nm are found to be insulating in the interior but metallic on the surface. This finding not only has unambiguousl...

We investigate the electrical conductance of long, high-mobility quantum wires formed by the split-gate technique, which allows for adjustment of the wire width and the number of one-dimensional electron subbands, n. In wires with 3<or=n<or=8, a logarithmic temperature dependence of the conductance is observed for 1<T<10 K, which reaches as much as 30% of the Drude conductance. In even narrower...

We studied the spin state dependence of the electrical conductivity of the spin crossover compound [Fe(Htrz)(2)(trz)](BF(4)) (Htrz = 1H-1,2,4-triazole) by means of dc electrical measurements. The low spin state is characterized by higher conductance and lower thermal activation energy of the conductivity, when compared to the high spin state.

The effect of the external electric field of 105 V/m on the ordering of two luminescent liquid crystalline molecules (1-pentyl-2/,3/-difluoro-3///-methyl-4////-octyl-p-quinguephenyl and 9,10-Bis (4-pentylphenylethynyl)antracene) during thermal vacuum deposition is studied. The morphology, electrical conductivity, optical absorption, luminescence spectra, and polarization are presented and analy...

A systematic experimental study of the electrical conductance of single alkanedithiol molecules (HS-(CH(2))(N)-SH) between gold contacts in air for N = 3-12 is presented. For all of these molecules, three different fundamental conductance groups (low, medium and high conductance) were observed. For long molecules (N > 7) the conductance decays exponentially with molecular length for all three c...

Methods used to strengthen metals generally also cause a pronounced decrease in electrical conductivity, so that a tradeoff must be made between conductivity and mechanical strength. We synthesized pure copper samples with a high density of nanoscale growth twins. They showed a tensile strength about 10 times higher than that of conventional coarse-grained copper, while retaining an electrical ...