Superconductivity and special symmetry of twisted tri-layer graphene in chiral model

Abstract

Superconducting properties of twisted tri-layer graphene (TTG) are studied within the scope of the chiral model based on using the unitary matrix USU(2) as an order parameter. To check the superconductor behavior of this system, the interaction with the external magnetic field B0 oriented along the graphene sheets is switched on and the internal magnetic intensity in the center is calculated as the function of the twisting angle. Vanishing of this function, due to the Meissner effect, being the important feature of the superconductivity, the corresponding dependence of the magic twisting angle on B0 is calculated. The unusual effect of re-entrant superconductivity for large values of B0 is discussed.

Full Text

1. Introduction It should be noticed that since the discovery of mono-atomic carbon layers called graphenes [1, 2] this material attracted high attention of researchers due to its extraordinary properties concerning magnetism, stiffness and considerable electric and thermal conductivity [3, 4]. The important connection was revealed with other graphene-based materials: Fullerenes [5] and carbon nanotubes [6]. A very simple explanation of these unusual properties of graphene was suggested in [7], where the idea of massless Dirac-like excitations of honeycomb carbon lattice was discussed, the latter one being considered as a superposition of two triangular sublattices. The further development of this idea was realized in [8, 9]. The unprecedented raise of interest has emerged to graphene-based materials and especially to moiré super-lattice patterns, this fact being motivated by their unconventional characteristics. In particular, specific magic-angle systems constructed by stacking two or three graphene layers twisted relative to each other have shown superconducting behavior [10-18]. However, these systems exhibit superconducting properties also for the very strong external magnetic fields (up to 10 T) [19], and therefore the standard superconductivity model by J. Bardeen, L. Cooper, J. Schrieffer and N. Bogoliubov [20] appears to be non suitable for the explanation of this fact. Thus, the superconductivity in TTG is likely to be driven by a mechanism that results in non-spin-singlet Cooper pairs. Nevertheless, it can be shown that the phenomenological approach based on the Landau theory of phase transitions [21] and on the corresponding chiral model of graphene suggested earlier [8] seems to be well suitable for the description of TTG. 2. Lagrangian density for the chiral model of graphene In accordance with the hexagonal structure of the graphene mono-atomic carbon lattice, the three valence electrons of the atom form strong covalent bonds with the neighbours, but the forth electron belongs to the so-called hybridized state and appears to be “free”. Thus, let us combine scalar
×

About the authors

Yuri P. Rybakov

RUDN University

Author for correspondence.
Email: rybakov-yup@rudn.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7744-9725
Scopus Author ID: 16454766600
ResearcherId: S-4813-2018

Professor, Doctor of Sciences in Physics and Mathematics, Professor at the Institute of Physical Research and Technologies

6 Miklukho-Maklaya St, Moscow, 117198, Russian Federation

Medina Umar

RUDN University

Email: mails4medina@gmail.com
Exchange student of the Institute of Physical Research and Technologies 6 Miklukho-Maklaya St, Moscow, 117198, Russian Federation

References

  1. Novoselov, K. S. et al. Electric field effect in atomically thin carbon films. Science 306, 666-669 (2004).
  2. Geim, A. K. Graphine: status and prospects. Science 324, 1530-1534 (2009).
  3. Lee, C. et al. Measurement of elastic properties and intrinsic strength of monolayer graphene. Science 321, 385-388 (2008).
  4. Bolotin, K. I. et al. Ultrahigh electron mobility in suspended graphene. Solid State Comm. 146, 351-355 (2008).
  5. Lu, X. & Chen, Z. Curved

Copyright (c) 2024 Rybakov Y.P., Umar M.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

This website uses cookies

You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website.

About Cookies