Landau Level Quantization and Possible Superconducting Instabilities in Highly Oriented Pyrolitic Graphite

TL;DR

This study investigates how Landau level quantization influences superconducting instabilities and Fermi surface behavior in highly oriented pyrolitic graphite under various magnetic fields and temperatures.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of field-induced and zero-field superconducting instabilities, and explores their competition with Fermi surface instabilities in graphite.

Findings

Evidence of superconducting instabilities in graphite under magnetic fields.

Observation of Fermi surface instabilities competing with superconductivity.

Magnetization measurements support the presence of Fermi surface effects.

Abstract

Measurements of the basal-plane resistivity rho_a(T,H) performed on highly oriented pyrolitic graphite, with magnetic field H parallel to the c-axis in the temperature interval 2 - 300 K and fields up to 8 T, provide evidence for the occurrence of both field - induced and zero-field superconducting instabilities. Additionally, magnetization M(T,H) measurements suggest the occurrence of Fermi surface instabilities which compete with the superconducting correlations.