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Title: Signatures of tunable superconductivity in a trilayer graphene moiré superlattice

Abstract

Understanding the mechanism of high-transition-temperature (high-Tc) superconductivity is a central problem in condensed matter physics. It is often speculated that high-Tc superconductivity arises in a doped Mott insulator1 as described by the Hubbard model2-4. An exact solution of the Hubbard model, however, is extremely challenging owing to the strong electron-electron correlation in Mott insulators. Therefore, it is highly desirable to study a tunable Hubbard system, in which systematic investigations of the unconventional superconductivity and its evolution with the Hubbard parameters can deepen our understanding of the Hubbard model. Here we report signatures of tunable superconductivity in an ABC-trilayer graphene (TLG) and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) moiré superlattice. Unlike in 'magic angle' twisted bilayer graphene, theoretical calculations show that under a vertical displacement field, the ABC-TLG/hBN heterostructure features an isolated flat valence miniband associated with a Hubbard model on a triangular superlattice5,6 where the bandwidth can be tuned continuously with the vertical displacement field. Upon applying such a displacement field we find experimentally that the ABC-TLG/hBN superlattice displays Mott insulating states below 20 kelvin at one-quarter and one-half fillings of the states, corresponding to one and two holes per unit cell, respectively. Upon further cooling, signatures of superconductivity ('domes') emerge belowmore » 1 kelvin for the electron- and hole-doped sides of the one-quarter-filling Mott state. The electronic behaviour in the ABC-TLG/hBN superlattice is expected to depend sensitively on the interplay between the electron-electron interaction and the miniband bandwidth. By varying the vertical displacement field, we demonstrate transitions from the candidate superconductor to Mott insulator and metallic phases. Our study shows that ABC-TLG/hBN heterostructures offer attractive model systems in which to explore rich correlated behaviour emerging in the tunable triangular Hubbard model.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [6];  [6];  [7];  [5];  [3];  [8];  [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  3. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  5. Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. (China); Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing (China)
  6. National Inst. for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba (Japan)
  7. Univ. of Seoul, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
  8. Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing (China); Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Novel Pathways to Quantum Coherence in Materials (NPQC); Stanford Univ., Redwood City, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
OSTI Identifier:
1545526
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1619126
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-76SF00515; AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature (London)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Nature (London); Journal Volume: 572; Journal Issue: 7768; Journal ID: ISSN 0028-0836
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY

Citation Formats

Chen, Guorui, Sharpe, Aaron L., Gallagher, Patrick, Rosen, Ilan T., Fox, Eli J., Jiang, Lili, Lyu, Bosai, Li, Hongyuan, Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Jung, Jeil, Shi, Zhiwen, Goldhaber-Gordon, David, Zhang, Yuanbo, and Wang, Feng. Signatures of tunable superconductivity in a trilayer graphene moiré superlattice. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1393-y.
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Chen, Guorui, Sharpe, Aaron L., Gallagher, Patrick, Rosen, Ilan T., Fox, Eli J., Jiang, Lili, Lyu, Bosai, Li, Hongyuan, Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Jung, Jeil, Shi, Zhiwen, Goldhaber-Gordon, David, Zhang, Yuanbo, & Wang, Feng. Signatures of tunable superconductivity in a trilayer graphene moiré superlattice. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1393-y
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Chen, Guorui, Sharpe, Aaron L., Gallagher, Patrick, Rosen, Ilan T., Fox, Eli J., Jiang, Lili, Lyu, Bosai, Li, Hongyuan, Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Jung, Jeil, Shi, Zhiwen, Goldhaber-Gordon, David, Zhang, Yuanbo, and Wang, Feng. Wed . "Signatures of tunable superconductivity in a trilayer graphene moiré superlattice". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1393-y. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1545526.
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@article{osti_1545526,
title = {Signatures of tunable superconductivity in a trilayer graphene moiré superlattice},
author = {Chen, Guorui and Sharpe, Aaron L. and Gallagher, Patrick and Rosen, Ilan T. and Fox, Eli J. and Jiang, Lili and Lyu, Bosai and Li, Hongyuan and Watanabe, Kenji and Taniguchi, Takashi and Jung, Jeil and Shi, Zhiwen and Goldhaber-Gordon, David and Zhang, Yuanbo and Wang, Feng},
abstractNote = {Understanding the mechanism of high-transition-temperature (high-Tc) superconductivity is a central problem in condensed matter physics. It is often speculated that high-Tc superconductivity arises in a doped Mott insulator1 as described by the Hubbard model2-4. An exact solution of the Hubbard model, however, is extremely challenging owing to the strong electron-electron correlation in Mott insulators. Therefore, it is highly desirable to study a tunable Hubbard system, in which systematic investigations of the unconventional superconductivity and its evolution with the Hubbard parameters can deepen our understanding of the Hubbard model. Here we report signatures of tunable superconductivity in an ABC-trilayer graphene (TLG) and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) moiré superlattice. Unlike in 'magic angle' twisted bilayer graphene, theoretical calculations show that under a vertical displacement field, the ABC-TLG/hBN heterostructure features an isolated flat valence miniband associated with a Hubbard model on a triangular superlattice5,6 where the bandwidth can be tuned continuously with the vertical displacement field. Upon applying such a displacement field we find experimentally that the ABC-TLG/hBN superlattice displays Mott insulating states below 20 kelvin at one-quarter and one-half fillings of the states, corresponding to one and two holes per unit cell, respectively. Upon further cooling, signatures of superconductivity ('domes') emerge below 1 kelvin for the electron- and hole-doped sides of the one-quarter-filling Mott state. The electronic behaviour in the ABC-TLG/hBN superlattice is expected to depend sensitively on the interplay between the electron-electron interaction and the miniband bandwidth. By varying the vertical displacement field, we demonstrate transitions from the candidate superconductor to Mott insulator and metallic phases. Our study shows that ABC-TLG/hBN heterostructures offer attractive model systems in which to explore rich correlated behaviour emerging in the tunable triangular Hubbard model.},
doi = {10.1038/s41586-019-1393-y},
journal = {Nature (London)},
number = 7768,
volume = 572,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {7}
}
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Journal Article:
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1393-y
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Figures / Tables:

Fig. 1 Fig. 1: Mott insulator in trilayer graphene/hBN moiré superlattice. a, An optical image of the ABC-TLG/hBN device with top and bottom gates. Scale bar, 3 μm. b, A schematic of the triangular ABC-TLG/ hBN moiré superlattice and the 1/4-filling Mott insulating state, which corresponds to one hole per superlattice unitmore » cell. c, The single-particle energy dispersion of the lowest electron and hole minibands in the ABC-TLG/hBN superlattice with an effective potential energy difference between the bottom and top graphene layer of 2Δ = −20 meV, which can be generated by a vertical displacement field of −0.4 V nm−1. It features a narrow and isolated hole miniband, shown highlighted in red. d, Rxx as a function of carrier density shows prominent Mott insulating states at 1/4 and 1/2 fillings with D = −0.4 V nm−1 at T = 5 K. e, Two-dimensional colour plot of Rxx as a function of Vt and Vb at T = 5 K. The resistance peaks at 1/4 and 1/2 fillings of the first hole miniband can be clearly identified for relatively large D.« less
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