Multilayer graphenes as a platform for interaction-driven physics and topological superconductivity

Abstract

Motivated by the recent discoveries of superconductivity in bilayer and trilayer graphene, we theoretically investigate superconductivity and other interaction-driven phases in multilayer graphene stacks. To this end, we study the density of states of multilayer graphene with up to four layers at the single-particle band structure level in the presence of a transverse electric field. Among the considered structures, tetralayer graphene with rhombohedral (ABCA) stacking reaches the highest density of states. We study the phases that can arise in ABCA graphene by tuning the carrier density and transverse electric field. For a broad region of the tuning parameters, the presence of strong Coulomb repulsion leads to a spontaneous spin and valley symmetry breaking via Stoner transitions. Using a model that incorporates the spontaneous spin and valley polarization, we explore the Kohn-Luttinger mechanism for superconductivity driven by repulsive Coulomb interactions. We find that the strongest superconducting instability is in the p-wave channel, and occurs in proximity to the onset of Stoner transitions. Interestingly, we find a range of densities and transverse electric fields where superconductivity develops out of a strongly corrugated, singly connected Fermi surface in each valley, leading to a topologically nontrivial chiral p+ip superconducting state with an even number of copropagating chiral Majorana edge modes. Our work establishes ABCA-stacked tetralayer graphene as a promising platform for observing strongly correlated physics and topological superconductivity.

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