Competing Zero-Field Chern Insulators in Superconducting Twisted Bilayer Graphene

Abstract

The discovery of magic angle twisted bilayer graphene has unveiled a rich variety of superconducting, magnetic, and topologically nontrivial phases. Here, we show that the zero-field states at odd integer filling factors in h-BN nonaligned devices are consistent with symmetry broken Chern insulators, as is evidenced by the observation of the anomalous Hall effect near moiré cell filling factor ν=+1. The corresponding Chern insulator has a Chern number C=±1 and a relatively high Curie temperature of Tc≈4.5 K. In a perpendicular magnetic field above B>0.5 T we observe a transition of the ν=+1 Chern insulator from Chern number C=±1 to C=3, characterized by a quantized Hall plateau with Ryx=h/3e2. These observations demonstrate that interaction-induced symmetry breaking leads to zero-field ground states that include almost degenerate and closely competing Chern insulators, and that states with larger Chern numbers couple most strongly to the B field. In addition, the device reveals strong superconducting phases with critical temperatures of up to Tc≈3.5 K. By providing the first demonstration of a system that allows gate-induced transitions between magnetic and superconducting phases, our observations mark a major milestone in the creation of a new generation of quantum electronics.

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