A team of researchers from MIT, the University of Basel, Florida State University, the University of Florida, and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan has reported a new family of unconventional superconducting states in rhombohedral multilayer graphene. The study, published in Nature on June 24, 2026, reveals that these states can be boosted by magnetic fields, a phenomenon that challenges conventional understanding of superconductivity.
The researchers observed that in rhombohedral graphene with five layers, applying a magnetic field can enhance superconductivity rather than suppress it. This effect, known as the Ising pairing mechanism, allows electrons to form Cooper pairs more robustly under certain conditions. The team identified multiple superconducting phases, including a re-entrant state that appears at higher magnetic fields.
Lead author Dr. Long Ju of MIT stated, 'This is a completely new type of superconductivity that we didn't expect to see in graphene.' The findings could pave the way for new quantum computing technologies and more efficient electronic devices. The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
Further experiments confirmed that the superconducting states are tunable by adjusting the twist angle and layer number of the graphene. The team plans to explore other multilayer configurations to uncover more exotic quantum phenomena.
