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Science 2 July 2004:
Vol. 305. no. 5680, pp. 52 - 53
DOI: 10.1126/science.1099387
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Perspectives

PHYSICS:
Electronic Frustration on a Triangular Lattice

N. P. Ong and R. J. Cava

The cobalt oxide NaxCoO2 has in recent years become the object of intense study. One reason is that when water is incorporated into its structure, the oxide becomes a superconductor. As Ong and Cava discuss in their Perspective, NaxCoO2 is an example of a triangular lattice in which the electron spins cannot align in the regular arrangement seen in rectangular lattices. This "geometric frustration" leads to a variety of unusual electronic and magnetic properties that are only now being understood.

N. P. Ong is in the Department of Physics and R. J. Cava is in the Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. E-mail: npo{at}princeton.edu; rcava{at}princeton.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)