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