Competing zero-field Chern insulators in Superconducting Twisted Bilayer Graphene

TL;DR

This paper reports the first experimental realization of a device in twisted bilayer graphene that exhibits both zero-field Chern insulator and superconducting phases, enabling gate-tunable phase transitions in a single material.

Contribution

Demonstrates a device that exhibits both zero-field Chern insulator and superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene, enabling gate-controlled phase transitions between these states.

Findings

Chern insulator with C = ±1 observed near moire filling v=+1

Superconductivity with critical temperature up to 3.5 K identified

Transition from Chern number C=±1 to C=3 under magnetic field

Abstract

The discovery of magic angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) has unveiled a rich variety of superconducting, magnetic and topologically nontrivial phases. The existence of all these phases in one material, and their tunability, has opened new pathways for the creation of unusual gate tunable junctions. However, the required conditions for their creation - gate induced transitions between phases in zero magnetic field - have so far not been achieved. Here, we report on the first experimental demonstration of a device that is both a zero-field Chern insulator and a superconductor. The Chern insulator occurs near moire cell filling factor v = +1 in a hBN non-aligned MATBG device and manifests itself via an anomalous Hall effect. The insulator has Chern number C = +-1 and a relatively high Curie temperature of Tc = 4.5 K. Gate tuning away from this state exposes strong superconducting phases with critical temperatures of up to Tc = 3.5 K. In a perpendicular magnetic field above B > 0.5 T we observe a transition of the /C/= +1 Chern insulator from Chern number C = +-1 to C = 3, characterized by a quantized Hall plateau with Ryx = h/3e2. These observations show that interaction-induced symmetry breaking in MATBG leads to zero-field ground states that include almost degenerate and closely competing Chern insulators, and that states with larger Chern numbers couple most strongly to the B-field. By providing the first demonstration of a system that allows gate-induced transitions between magnetic and superconducting phases, our observations mark a major milestone in the creation of a new generation of quantum electronics.