Researchers report interfacial Ising superconductivity in a graphene‑capped gallium trilayer

In this structure, three atomic layers of gallium are confined between a silicon carbide (6H‑SiC) substrate below and a graphene capping layer above. The graphene both protects the gallium from oxidation and defines the top interface, while the SiC substrate provides a rigid template and a source of strong interfacial coupling. Electrical transport measurements show that the system becomes superconducting at low temperatures, with an in‑plane upper critical magnetic field of about 21.98 T at 400 mK, which is approximately 3.38 times the conventional Pauli paramagnetic limit for this material.

Researchers from Penn State, University of Oxford, Zhejiang University, Diamond Light Source and the University of North Texas have demonstrated a new route to Ising‑type superconductivity in a lightweight, low‑dimensional material by combining quantum confinement with strong interfacial hybridization. Using plasma‑free confinement epitaxy aided by a carbon buffer layer, they synthesized a gallium trilayer sandwiched between graphene and a 6H‑SiC(0001) substrate, creating a two‑dimensional superconducting channel where Cooper pairs are stabilized against in‑plane magnetic fields well beyond the Pauli paramagnetic limit.In this structure, three atomic layers of gallium are confined between a silicon carbide (6H‑SiC) substrate below and a graphene capping layer above. The graphene both protects the gallium from oxidation and defines the top interface, while the SiC substrate provides a rigid template and a source of strong interfacial coupling. Electrical transport measurements show that the system becomes superconducting at low temperatures, with an in‑plane upper critical magnetic field of about 21.98 T at 400 mK, which is approximately 3.38 times the conventional Pauli paramagnetic limit for this material.

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