Family of magnetic field-boosted superconductors in rhombohedral graphene | Nature

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Electronic properties and materials<br>Superconducting properties and materials

Abstract<br>In some unconventional superconductors, time-reversal symmetry can be broken in addition to the gauge symmetry1, resulting in superconductivities that can be enhanced or induced by magnetic fields2. However, field-enhanced superconductors are more vulnerable to impurities than Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer counterparts3. Crystalline rhombohedral multilayer graphene is a promising platform to explore them due to its superior material quality and gate-tunable strong correlation effects4,5. Here we report transport measurements of rhombohedral tetralayer and pentalayer graphene, demonstrating a spectrum of clean-limit superconductivities. We found three different types of field-enhanced and field-induced superconductivities in the pentalayer. They are all robust against an in-plane field up to 8.5 Tesla, exceeding the Pauli limit by tens of times. Compared to Bernal bilayer graphene showing only in-plane field-enhancement6, pentalayer graphene features superconductors enhanced by out-of-plane as well as in-plane fields. They also reside at much lower gate electric fields owing to the intrinsically flatter band dispersion—facilitating their study and further engineering. Additionally, we observed that proximitized spin-orbit coupling (SOC) generates multiple new superconductors without introducing additional disorder effects. Our work establishes a new family of magnetic field-boosted superconductors in rhombohedral graphene. Utilizing the high accessibility with moderate gate voltages, this will pave the way for realizing non-Abelian quasiparticles through interfacial engineering7 in the extreme clean limit, in that proximitized SOC leads to topological states8 and maintains the ultrahigh quality of crystalline graphene.

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Author information<br>Author notesThese authors contributed equally: Junseok Seo, Armel A. Cotten, Shenyong Ye

Authors and Affiliations<br>Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA<br>Junseok Seo, Shenyong Ye, Tonghang Han, Zhengguang Lu, Zhenghan Wu, Wei Xu, Jixiang Yang, Emily Aitken, Prayoga P. Liong, Phatthanon Pattanakanvijit, Zach Hadjri & Long Ju

Department of Physics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland<br>Armel A. Cotten, Mingchi Xu, Omid Sharifi Sedeh, Henok Weldeyesus & Dominik M. Zumbühl

Department of Physics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA<br>Zhengguang Lu

Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA<br>Rasul Gazizulin

National High Magnetic Field Laboratory High B/T Facility, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA<br>Rasul Gazizulin

Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan<br>Kenji Watanabe

Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan<br>Takashi Taniguchi

Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA<br>Mingda Li

AuthorsJunseok SeoView author publications<br>Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Armel A. CottenView author publications<br>Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Shenyong YeView author publications<br>Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Mingchi XuView author publications<br>Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Omid Sharifi SedehView author publications<br>Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Henok WeldeyesusView author publications<br>Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Tonghang HanView author publications<br>Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Zhengguang LuView author publications<br>Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Zhenghan WuView author publications<br>Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Wei XuView author publications<br>Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Jixiang YangView author publications<br>Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Emily AitkenView author...