Superconductivity in metal coated graphene

ORAL

Abstract

Graphene, a single atomic layer of graphite, is a two dimensional (2D) zero gap insulator with a high electronic mobility between nearest neighbor carbon sites. The unique electronic properties of graphene, from the semi-metallic behavior to the observation of an anomalous quantum Hall effect and a zero field quantized minimum of conductivity derive from the relativistic nature of its quasiparticles. By doping graphene, it behaves in several aspects as a conventional Fermi liquid, where electrons may form Cooper pairs by coupling with a bosonic mode. In this talk, we develop a mean-field phenomenology of superconductivity in a honeycomb lattice. We predict the possibility of two distinct phases, a singlet s-wave phase and a novel p+ip wave phase in the singlet channel. At half filling, the p+ip phase is gapless and superconductivity is a hidden order. We propose a few possible sources of Cooper pairing instability in graphene coated with alkaline and transition metals, and similar low dimensional graphene based devices.

Authors

  • Bruno Uchoa

    • Physics Dept, Boston University
  • Antonio Castro Neto

    • Boston University
    • Department of Physics, Boston University
    • Boston University, Physics Department
    • Department of Physics. Boston University. 590 Commonwealth Av. Boston MA02115
    • Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston,USA
    • Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215
    • Physics Dept, Boston University