Researchers Discover Surface Orbital 'Roughness' in Manganites

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have shown that in a class of materials called manganites, the electronic behavior at the surface is considerably different from that found in the bulk. Their findings, which were published online in the November 18, 2007, issue of Nature Materials, could have implications for the next generation of electronic devices, which will involve increasingly smaller components.