Abstract
Chiral superconductors are unconventional superconducting states that break time reversal symmetry spontaneously and typically feature Cooper pairing at non-zero angular momentum. Such states may host Majorana fermions and provide an important platform for topological physics research and fault-tolerant quantum computing1–7. Despite intensive search and prolonged studies of several candidate systems8–26, chiral superconductivity has remained elusive so far. Here we report the discovery of robust unconventional superconductivity in rhombohedral tetra- and penta-layer graphene without moiré superlattice effects. We observed two superconducting states in the gate-induced flat conduction bands with Tc up to 300 mK and charge density ne down to 2.4*1011 cm-2 in five devices. Spontaneous time-reversal-symmetry-breaking due to electron’s orbital motion is found, and several observations indicate the chiral nature of these superconducting states, including: 1. In the superconducting state, Rxx shows magnetic hysteresis in varying out-of-plane magnetic field B⊥—absent from all other superconductors; 2. the superconducting states are robust against in-plane magnetic field and are developed within a spin- and valley-polarized quarter-metal phase; 3. the normal states show anomalous Hall signals at zero magnetic field and magnetic hysteresis. We also observed a critical B⊥ of 1.4 Tesla, higher than any graphene superconductivity and indicates a strong-coupling superconductivity close to the BCS-BEC crossover27. Our observations establish a pure carbon material for the study of topological superconductivity, with the promise to explore Majorana modes and topological quantum computing.
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These authors contributed equally: Tonghang Han, Zhengguang Lu, Zach Hadjri
Authors and Affiliations
Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Tonghang Han,Zhengguang Lu,Zach Hadjri,Lihan Shi,Zhenghan Wu,Wei Xu,Yuxuan Yao,Jixiang Yang,Junseok Seo,Shenyong Ye,Muyang Zhou,Liang Fu&Long Ju
Department of Physics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
Zhengguang Lu,Haoyang Liu,Gang Shi,Zhenqi Hua&Peng Xiong
Department of Physics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Armel A. Cotten,Omid Sharifi Sedeh,Henok Weldeyesus&Dominik M. Zumbühl
Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Japan
Kenji Watanabe
Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Japan
Takashi Taniguchi
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- Tonghang Han
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- Zhengguang Lu
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- Zach Hadjri
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- Lihan Shi
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- Zhenghan Wu
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- Wei Xu
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- Yuxuan Yao
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- Armel A. Cotten
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- Omid Sharifi Sedeh
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- Henok Weldeyesus
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- Junseok Seo
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- Shenyong Ye
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- Muyang Zhou
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- Haoyang Liu
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- Gang Shi
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- Zhenqi Hua
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- Kenji Watanabe
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- Takashi Taniguchi
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- Peng Xiong
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- Dominik M. Zumbühl
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- Liang Fu
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- Long Ju
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Correspondence to Long Ju.
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Han, T., Lu, Z., Hadjri, Z. et al. Signatures of chiral superconductivity in rhombohedral graphene. Nature (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09169-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09169-7
