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Pauli-limit violation and re-entrant superconductivity in moiré graphene

Author

Listed:
  • Yuan Cao

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Jeong Min Park

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Kenji Watanabe

    (National Institute for Materials Science)

  • Takashi Taniguchi

    (National Institute for Materials Science)

  • Pablo Jarillo-Herrero

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Abstract

Moiré quantum matter has emerged as a materials platform in which correlated and topological phases can be explored with unprecedented control. Among them, magic-angle systems constructed from two or three layers of graphene have shown robust superconducting phases with unconventional characteristics1–5. However, direct evidence of unconventional pairing remains to be experimentally demonstrated. Here we show that magic-angle twisted trilayer graphene exhibits superconductivity up to in-plane magnetic fields in excess of 10 T, which represents a large (2–3 times) violation of the Pauli limit for conventional spin-singlet superconductors6,7. This is an unexpected observation for a system that is not predicted to have strong spin–orbit coupling. The Pauli-limit violation is observed over the entire superconducting phase, which indicates that it is not related to a possible pseudogap phase with large superconducting amplitude pairing. Notably, we observe re-entrant superconductivity at large magnetic fields, which is present over a narrower range of carrier densities and displacement fields. These findings suggest that the superconductivity in magic-angle twisted trilayer graphene is likely to be driven by a mechanism that results in non-spin-singlet Cooper pairs, and that the external magnetic field can cause transitions between phases with potentially different order parameters. Our results demonstrate the richness of moiré superconductivity and could lead to the design of next-generation exotic quantum matter.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuan Cao & Jeong Min Park & Kenji Watanabe & Takashi Taniguchi & Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, 2021. "Pauli-limit violation and re-entrant superconductivity in moiré graphene," Nature, Nature, vol. 595(7868), pages 526-531, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:595:y:2021:i:7868:d:10.1038_s41586-021-03685-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03685-y
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    Cited by:

    1. Maine Christos & Subir Sachdev & Mathias S. Scheurer, 2023. "Nodal band-off-diagonal superconductivity in twisted graphene superlattices," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. J. González & T. Stauber, 2023. "Ising superconductivity induced from spin-selective valley symmetry breaking in twisted trilayer graphene," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.
    3. Shouheng Chen & Zihan Liang & Jinshui Miao & Xiang-Long Yu & Shuo Wang & Yule Zhang & Han Wang & Yun Wang & Chun Cheng & Gen Long & Taihong Wang & Lin Wang & Han Zhang & Xiaolong Chen, 2024. "Infrared optoelectronics in twisted black phosphorus," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.

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