Chiral triplet superconductivity on the graphene lattice

TL;DR

This study explores possible superconducting states in doped graphene, finding that chiral p+ip triplet pairing is favored under certain conditions, with implications for understanding unconventional superconductivity in two-dimensional materials.

Contribution

It demonstrates the stability of chiral p+ip triplet superconductivity in doped graphene using advanced many-body computational methods, highlighting conditions favoring this pairing symmetry.

Findings

Chiral p+ip pairing is favored at larger V and U or smaller doping.

Real nonchiral p-wave is favored at small V, U, or large doping.

Singlet superconductivity is absent or sub-dominant.

Abstract

Motivated by the possibility of superconductivity in doped graphene sheets, we investigate superconducting order in the extended Hubbard model on the two-dimensional graphene lattice using the variational cluster approximation (VCA) and the cellular dynamical mean-field theory (CDMFT) with an exact diagonalization solver at zero temperature. The nearest-neighbor interaction is treated using a mean-field decoupling between clusters. We compare different pairing symmetries, singlet and triplet, based on short-range pairing. VCA simulations show that the real (nonchiral), triplet $p$-wave symmetry is favored for small $V$, small on-site interaction $U$ or large doping, whereas the chiral combination $p+ip$ is favored for larger values of $V$, stronger on-site interaction $U$ or smaller doping. CDMFT simulations confirm the stability of the $p+ip$ solution, even at half-filling. Singlet superconductivity (extended $s$-wave or $d$-wave) is either absent or sub-dominant.