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Chiral superconductivity from repulsive interactions in doped graphene

Nature Physics volume 8, pages 158–163 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Chiral superconductivity, which breaks time-reversal symmetry, can exhibit a wealth of fascinating properties that are highly sought after for nanoscience applications. We identify doped graphene monolayer as a system where chiral superconductivity can be realized. In this material, a unique situation arises at a doping where the Fermi surface is nested and the density of states is singular. In this regime, d-wave superconductivity can emerge from repulsive electron–electron interactions. Using a renormalization group method, we argue that superconductivity dominates over all competing orders for generic weak repulsive interactions. Superconductivity develops simultaneously in two degenerate d-wave pairing channels. We argue that the resulting superconducting state is of chiral type, with the phase of the superconducting order parameter winding by 4π around the Fermi surface. Realization of this state in doped graphene will prove that superconductivity can emerge from electron–electron repulsion, and will open the door to applications of chiral superconductivity.

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Figure 1: Chiral superconductivity arises when graphene is doped to the Van Hove singularity at the saddle point (M points of the Brillouin zone).
Figure 2: Possible interactions in the patch model.
Figure 3: Flow of couplings with renormalization group scale y, starting from repulsive interactions.
Figure 4: Possible superconducting orders that could develop at the M point.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

    Rahul Nandkishore & L. S. Levitov

  2. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA

    A. V. Chubukov

Authors
  1. Rahul Nandkishore
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  2. L. S. Levitov
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  3. A. V. Chubukov
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Contributions

R.N., L.S.L. and A.V.C. jointly identified the problem, performed the analysis and wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. V. Chubukov.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Nandkishore, R., Levitov, L. & Chubukov, A. Chiral superconductivity from repulsive interactions in doped graphene. Nature Phys 8, 158–163 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2208

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