Good vibrations give electrons excitations that rock an insulator to go metallic

November 10, 2014 — OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Nov. 10, 2014—For more than 50 years, scientists have debated what turns particular oxide insulators, in which electrons barely move, into metals, in which electrons flow freely. Some scientists sided with Nobel Prize–winning physicist Nevill Mott in thinking direct interactions between electrons were the key.