Surface superconductivity in rhombohedral graphite

N. B. Kopnin; T. T. Heikkila

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arXiv · 1210.7075

Surface superconductivity in rhombohedral graphite

N. B. Kopnin·T. T. Heikkila

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Abstract

We show that rhombohedral graphite may support surface superconductivity with an unusual relation between the BCS coupling constant and the order parameter. This feature results from the properties of the states localized on the graphite surfaces. In a description including only the nearest neighbour coupling of the graphene layers, the surface states are topologically protected and have a flat band dispersion. We show that including higher order couplings destroys this flat band character and leads to a particle-hole symmetry breaking quadratic dispersion with a large effective mass. Employing this dispersion, we then show its effect on superconductivity and find two regimes of parameters, depending on the relation between the strength of the coupling constant and the details of the quadratic dispersion. For low coupling strengths, superconductivity is localized on the surfaces, but the order parameter is exponentially suppressed as in a conventional BCS superconductor, whereas for large coupling strengths we obtain surface superconductivity with a linear relation between the order parameter and the coupling constant. Our results may explain the recent findings of graphite superconductivity with a relatively high transition temperature.

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N. B. Kopnin, T. T. Heikkila. 2012-10-26. Surface superconductivity in rhombohedral graphite. https://arxiv.org/abs/1210.7075

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