Magnetic-Field-Driven Insulator-Superconductor Transition in Rhombohedral Graphene

TL;DR

This paper reports a magnetic-field-induced insulator-superconductor transition in rhombohedral graphene, revealing a spin-polarized superconductor with critical fields exceeding Pauli limits and multiple superconducting phases.

Contribution

It uncovers a magnetic-field-driven transition and identifies a spin-polarized superconductor in rhombohedral graphene, expanding understanding of its phase diagram and superconducting mechanisms.

Findings

Upper critical in-plane field exceeds Pauli limit

Identification of spin-polarized superconductor

Observation of multiple superconducting states

Abstract

Recent studies of rhombohedral multilayer graphene (RMG) have revealed a variety of superconducting states that can be induced or enhanced by magnetic fields, reinforcing RMG as a powerful platform for investigating novel superconductivity. Here we report an insulator-superconductor transition driven by in-plane magnetic fields B|| in rhombohedral hexalayer graphene. The upper critical in-plane field of 2T violates the Pauli limit, and an analysis based on isospin symmetry breaking supports a spin-polarized superconductor. At in-plane B = 0, such spin-polarized superconductor transitions into an insulator, exhibiting a thermally activated gap of 0.1 meV. In addition, we observe four superconducting states in the hole-doped regime, as well as phases with orbital multiferroicity near charge neutrality point. These findings substantially enrich the phase diagram of rhombohedral graphene and provide new insight into the microscopic mechanisms of superconductivity