Unlike the music charts there are no duds in the JPCM hot topic ‘best sellers’.  This list reveals the five topics that feature most frequently as the subject of JPCM papers in the four March issues of this year.

1) Superconductivity

Straight in at number one are superconductors, and these materials are certainly hard to resist.  The discovery of iron pnictides in 2008 sparked a resurgence in the field with much of the fundamental physics being reported in JPCM.

2) Antiferromagnetic materials

With the impending general election in the UK, “spin” is hard to escape.  At least the electron spins in an antiferromagnetic material serve a useful purpose.  An antiferromagnetic layer is used to pin ferromagnets in spin valves – the basis of hard drive read heads.

3) Graphene

A firm favourite with our authors, the only surprise is that graphene doesn’t feature higher up the list.  JPCM has published some important graphene papers over the years including this from Nobel Prize winners Geim and Novoselov.

4) Thermoelectric materials

In a thermoelectric material a temperature difference creates an electric potential or vice versa.  If realised on a workable scale thermoelectric devices could convert waste heat into useful electricity.  Could they one day help provide an answer to the global energy crisis?

5) Topological insulators

Topological insulators behave like an insulator on the interior, but have conducting states on the surface.  If you like complex mathematics then this is a topic for you.  Find out more from our dedicated compilation.

Images are taken from figures in the following JPCM papers (Copyright IOP Publishing 2015):

Image 1: E V L de Mello and David Möckli 2015 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 27 095702

Image 2: M Charilaou and F Hellman 2015 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 27 086001

Image 3: Jin-Wu Jiang et al 2015 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 27 083001

Image 4: Denis Music and Jochen M Schneider 2015 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 27 115302

Image 5: Lei Hao and Ting-Kuo Lee 2015 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 27 105701

Categories: Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter

Tags: Antiferromagnetics, Condensed matter physics, Correlated electrons, Graphene, Magnetism, Superconductors, Thermoelectric materials, Topological insulators