Flat bands and superconductivity induced by periodic strain in monolayer graphene

Abstract

Superconductivity in single-layer graphene has attracted considerable interest. Here, using the determinant quantum Monte Carlo method, we study transitions of superconductivity and magnetism in a monolayer graphene with a special periodic strain. Consistent with experiments, the deformation accumulates a series of flat bands, whose robustness under interaction is verified through electron localization in real space. During the reconstruction of the band structure, the superconductivity appears in flat band range with next-nearest neighbor $d+id$ pairing symmetry dominating other modes and is accompanied by ferromagnetism caused by symmetry breaking. We also demonstrate that the strain-induced symmetry breaking would accumulate an energy-gap antiferromagnetic insulating phase at half filling even under the limitation of not strong enough interaction, which shows its potential as a platform that exhibits strongly correlated phenomena.