Tuning superconducting pairing symmetry via a staggered potential in the doped honeycomb Hubbard model

Abstract

The ability to control superconducting pairing symmetry is crucial for designing unconventional and topological superconductors, yet practical tuning parameters beyond chemical doping remain limited. In this study, we investigate the effect of a tunable sublattice staggered potential on the pairing symmetry in the doped honeycomb Hubbard model. Determinant quantum Monte Carlo at finite temperature and constrained-path quantum Monte Carlo at zero temperature are employed to compute spin susceptibilities and pairing correlations in different channels. We find that increasing the staggered potential suppresses antiferromagnetic fluctuations and, at low doping, induces a transition in the dominant pairing tendency from $d+id$-wave to $f_n$-wave, with consistent results from both quantum Monte Carlo methods. In contrast, at higher doping levels, the system remains dominated by $d+id$-wave pairing even under an enhanced staggered potential. Moreover, strengthening the on-site interaction $U$ enhances the dominant pairing channel, underscoring the essential role of electronic correlations. Our results establish the staggered potential as a practical band-engineering tool for selecting unconventional pairing symmetries without varying the doping concentration, providing inspiration for designing graphene-based artificial superconductors and related doped band insulators such as Li${}_x$MNCl.

arXiv comment9 pages and 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B

References in corpus (40)

• The electronic properties of graphene
• Paired states of fermions in two dimensions with breaking of parity and time-reversal symmetries, and the fractional quantum Hall effect
• Biased bilayer graphene: semiconductor with a gap tunable by electric field effect
• A Common Thread: the pairing interaction for the unconventional superconductors
• Electronic Properties of Disordered Two-Dimensional Carbon
• Valley-Polarized Metals and Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Silicene
• Chiral superconductivity from repulsive interactions in doped graphene
• Spontaneously polarized half-gapped superconductivity
• Observation of an electrically tunable band gap in trilayer graphene
• Correlated states in twisted double bilayer graphene
• Electric field tunable unconventional superconductivity in alternating twist magic-angle trilayer graphene
• Superconducting states of pure and doped graphene
• A Constrained Path Monte Carlo Method for Fermion Ground States
• Competing many-body instabilities and unconventional superconductivity in graphene
• Density waves and Cooper pairing on the honeycomb lattice
• A Constrained Path Quantum Monte Carlo Method for Fermion Ground States
• Ground state and finite temperature signatures of quantum phase transitions in the half-filled Hubbard model on a honeycomb lattice
• Kohn-Luttinger superconductivity in graphene
• Superconductivity in dilute SrTiO${}_3$: a review
• Coexistence of superconductivity with partially filled stripes in the Hubbard model
• Phase diagram and magnetic collective excitations of the Hubbard model in graphene sheets and layers
• Benchmark study of the two-dimensional Hubbard model with auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo method
• Pairing in graphene: A quantum Monte Carlo study
• Room temperature magnetism on the zigzag edges of phosphorene nanoribbons
• Stripes and spin-density waves in the doped two-dimensional Hubbard model: ground state phase diagram
• Chiral triplet superconductivity on the graphene lattice
• d+id'-wave Superconducting States in Graphene
• Quantum Monte Carlo Study of Pairing Symmetry and Correlation in Iron-based Superconductors
• Chiral d-wave superconductivity on the honeycomb lattice close to the Mott state
• Spin-triplet superconductivity from interband effect in doped insulators
• New mechanism and exact theory of superconductivity from strong repulsive interaction
• Competing pairing channels in the doped honeycomb lattice Hubbard model
• Pairing, Charge, and Spin Correlations in the Three-Band Hubbard Model
• Metal-insulator transition and dominant $d+id$ pairing symmetry in twisted bilayer graphene
• Quantum Monte Carlo study of superconductivity in rhombohedral trilayer graphene under an electric field
• Topological superconductivity on the honeycomb lattice: Effect of normal state topology
• High-$T_c$ superconductivity in weakly electron-doped HfNCl
• Possible Liquid-Nitrogen-Temperature Superconductivity Driven by Perpendicular Electric Field in the Single-Bilayer Film of La${}_3$Ni${}_2$O${}_7$ at Ambient Pressure
• Pairing Symmetry Crossover from $d$-wave to $s_{\pm }$-wave in a Bilayer Nickelate Driven by Hund's Coupling and Crystal Field Splitting
• High temperature spin-triplet topological superconductivity in K2Cr3As3