Abstract
Charge- superconductivity as a novel phase of matter remains elusive so far. Here, we show that charge-4e phase can arise as a vestigial order above the nematic superconducting transition temperature in time-reversal-invariant nematic superconductors. On the one hand, the nontrivial topological defect—nematic vortex—is energetically favored over the superconducting phase vortex when the nematic stiffness is less than the superfluid stiffness; consequently the charge- phase emerges by proliferation of nematic vortices upon increasing temperatures. On the other hand, the Ginzburg-Landau theory of the nematic superconductors has two distinct decoupling channels to either charge- orders or nematic orders; by analyzing the competition between the effective mass of the charge- order and the cubic potential of the nematic order, we find a sizable regime where the charge- order is favored. These two analyses consistently show that nematic superconductors can provide a promising route to realize charge- phases, which may apply to candidate nematic superconductors such as and twisted bilayer graphene.
- Received 17 February 2021
- Accepted 1 November 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.227001
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