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Disorder-Induced Quantum Griffiths Singularity Revealed in

an Artificial 2D Superconducting System
Xiaowen Han, Yufeng Wu, Hong Xiao, Miao Zhang, Min Gao, Yi Liu, Jian Wang,
Tao Hu,* Xiaoming Xie, and Zengfeng Di*

low-dimensional electron system.[1–19]

Disorder-induced Griffiths singularity of quantum phase transition (QPT) is a Superconductor-insulator/metal transition
crucial issue in 2D superconductors (2DSC). In a superconducting system, (SIT/SMT) is a paradigm of QPT, which is
the strength of disorder is found to be associated with the vortex pinning the ground state phase transition at zero
energy, which is closely related to the quantum Griffiths singularity; however, temperature and is tuned by nonthermal
external parameters such as disorder,
a direct study to elucidate the role of vortex pinning energy on the quantum
pressure, and magnetic field.[20] The QPT
Griffiths singularity in 2DSC remains to be undertaken. Here, an artificial can dominate the thermodynamics up
2DSC system is designed by randomly depositing superconducting to a relatively high temperature and in
nanoislands on 2Delectron gas (2DEG). Quantum Griffiths singularity is fact, the appearance of many unusual
present in a graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid, where the superconducting superconducting properties results from
the proximity of quantum critical points
behavior transits to weakly localized metallic behavior induced by the vertical
(QCPs), which can be distinguished by
magnetic field and exhibits critical behavior with a diverging dynamical critical a finite-size scaling (FSS) behavior.[20]
exponent approaching zero temperature. Compared to the study of Quenched disorder (static in time) has a
graphene/Sn-islands-array hybrid where the sharp QPT is observed, the profound influence on the QPT of 2DSC[1]
vortex pinning energy acquired from the Arrhenius plot analysis is greater in and high-temperature cuprate supercon-
graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid, which may contribute to the presence of ductors that are intrinsically disordered.[7]
The disorder can suppress global su-
the quantum Griffiths singularity. This work may provide a comprehensive
perconductivity in 2DSC by either apply-
interpretation of the QPT in 2DSC. ing magnetic fields to generate vortices or
degrading sample quality.[19] The conven-
tional perpendicular magnetic field turned
1. Introduction SIT/SMT is usually sharp with a fixed QPT at zero tempera-
ture, which has been previously observed in the amorphous
The thermodynamics of 2D superconductors (2DSC) is usually and granular 2D superconductors,[21–24] interface supercon-
governed by quantum phase transition (QPT) because of the en- ductor LaTiO3 /SrTiO3 ,[25] under-doped La2−x Srx CuO4 [26] and
hanced quantum fluctuation induced by finite-size effects in a graphene/Sn-islands-array hybrids.[8] While recent experiments

Dr. X. Han, Dr. Y. Wu, Prof. M. Zhang, Dr. M. Gao, Prof. T. Hu, Dr. Y. Wu, Prof. T. Hu, Prof. X. Xie
Prof. X. Xie, Prof. Z. Di CAS Center for Excellence in Superconducting Electronics (CENSE)
State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics Shanghai 200050, China
Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology Prof. H. Xiao
Chinese Academy of Sciences Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research
865 Changning Road, Shanghai 200050, China Beijing 100094, China
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Dr. Y. Liu, Prof. J. Wang
Dr. X. Han, Dr. Y. Wu, Dr. M. Gao International Center for Quantum Materials
Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering School of Physics
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Peking University
Beijing 100049, China Beijing 100871, China
Dr. Y. Liu, Prof. J. Wang
Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter
Beijing 100871, China
The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article Prof. J. Wang
can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201902849 CAS Center for Excellence in Topological Quantum Computation
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
© 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This is an open
Beijing 100190, China
access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any Prof. J. Wang, Prof. T. Hu
medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences
West Bld. #3, No. 10 Xibeiwang East Rd., Haidian District Beijing 100193,
DOI: 10.1002/advs.201902849 China

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Figure 1. Crystal structure and characterizations of graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrids. a) Cross-sectional TEM image of graphene/Pb-islands-array
hybrid. b) Plan-view SEM image of a graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid. c) High-resolution TEM image of Region 1 marked in Panel (a). d) TEM–EDS
elemental maps of the selected blue region in Panel (a) for Pb and Ge. e) SAED patterns collected from different regions of an individual Pb island shown
in Panel (a).

instead show a smeared SMT with a divergent dynamical crit- consisting of graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid. By applying a
ical exponent (known as the quantum Griffiths singularity) as vertical magnetic field, the system shows a quantum Griffiths-
observed in crystalline superconducting Ga thin film,[1] the type superconductor to metal transition (SMT) in contrast with
LaAlO3 /SrTiO3 (110) interface,[2] monolayer NbSe2 ,[3] and ion- our previous observation in graphene/Sn-islands-array hybrids
gated ZrNCl film.[4] The presence of quantum Griffiths singu- with different vortex pinning energy,[8] where a double quantum
larity is believed to be caused by a disorder effect in inducing critical behavior with a sharp QPT can be realized. Compared to
superconducting rare regions (puddles).[1–6] In a superconduct- that in graphene/Sn-islands-array hybrids,[8] the vortex pinning
ing system, the dynamics of vortices can determine the electro- energy[13–16] in the graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid is greater,
magnetic properties of superconductors[7] where the quenched and is responsible for the quantum Griffiths singularity. These
disorder strongly influences the dynamics of systems in pinning results may improve current understanding of the profound in-
the vortex.[7,14] Consequently, the strength of disorder is charac- fluence of the vortex pinning effect on the QPT in 2DSC.
terized by the vortex pinning energy that is obtained from analy-
sis of the Arrhenius plot.[8,15–19] However, previous observations 2. Results and Discussion
of quantum Griffiths singularity were reported in quite differ-
ent 2DSC systems,[1–6] and the relevant vortex pinning energies Single-crystalline graphene was synthesized by chemical va-
cannot be compared in parallel between various 2DSC systems. por deposition on an intrinsic Ge (110) substrate (Figure
Therefore, a systematic study to elucidate the role of vortex pin- S1, Supporting Information).[27,28] Then, 20-nm-thick Pb was
ning energy on the quantum Griffiths singularity in 2DSC re- deposited on single-crystalline graphene by electron beam evap-
mains to be undertaken. According to our previous work,[8] the oration (Experimental Section; Figure S2, Supporting Informa-
superconducting puddles-2DEG hybrid[8–12] is an artificial 2D su- tion). Owing to the poor wettability of graphene[8,11] and the
perconducting system, providing a general platform to explore low melting point of Pb,[29,30] the deposited Pb is prone to be-
2D superconductivity with different vortex pinning energies. ing randomly distributed into irregular disconnected nanois-
In the present study, we deposit Pb nanoislands on single- lands, as suggested by cross-sectional transmission electron
crystalline graphene to form a 2D superconducting system microscopy (TEM, Figure 1a) and plan-view scanning electron

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Figure 2. Superconductivity of graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid. a) Rs (T) behavior obtained at zero magnetic field. The inset shows a sketch of the Hall
bar device. b) Log–log scale plot of the voltage–current (V–I) curves at various temperatures. The black dashed line represents V∝I3 . The inset shows
the extracted power-law fitting exponent 𝛼 as a function of the temperature. The BKT transition temperatureTBKT = 5.3K is defined as 𝛼 = 3.

microscopy (SEM) in Figure 1b. TEM–energy dispersive X-ray corresponds to the true superconducting region with zero resis-
spectroscopy (TEM–EDS, Figure 1d) further proves that Pb tance. Compared to a graphene/Sn-islands-array hybrid,[8] the su-
nanoislands are completely disconnected from each other. A perconducting transition temperature range of a graphene/Pb-
high-resolution TEM (HR-TEM, Figure 1c) image of the selected islands-array hybrid is found to be relatively broad, which may
area of a Pb nanoisland shows that the Pb nanoisland possesses be ascribed to the reduced Josephson coupling effect due to
a perfect lattice structure with no distinct grain boundaries. The large average spacing of Pb-islands. The Josephson coupling ef-
selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns (Figure 1e) col- fect through the 2DEG provided by single-crystalline graphene is
lected along an individual Pb nanoisland are nearly identical, confirmed by comparison experiment in that the graphene/Pb-
evincing the single-crystalline nature of the Pb nanoisland.[31–33] islands-array hybrid becomes insulating when oxygen plasma is
Both HR-TEM image and SAED patterns suggest that the Pb utilized to remove the graphene between adjacent Pb nanois-
nanoisland possesses a single-grain structure. As the intrin- lands (Figure S5, Supporting Information). The observed insu-
sic Ge (110) substrate becomes totally insulating below 10 K lating behavior also demonstrates that Pb nanoislands deposited
(Figure S3, Supporting Information), the top single-crystalline on single-crystalline graphene are completely disconnected from
graphene provides an ideal 2DEG platform[8,34] that enables 2D each other. For a 2D superconducting system, a Berezinskii–
coupling between the superconducting Pb nanoislands. Like the Kosterlitz–Thouless (BKT) type transition is expected,[37] which
superconductor-metal-superconductor system acting as a basic interprets the process such that the bound vortex–antivortex pair-
Josephson junction,[22,35] the Pb nanoislands and the adjacent ing breaks into the unbound vortex–antivortex at elevated temper-
single-crystalline graphene constitute Josephson junction arrays. ature. The BKT transition temperature (TBKT ) is derived from the
The temperature-dependent sheet resistance Rs (T) at zero V–I measurements at V∝I3 .[1,8,37] In the log–log scale V–I plot in
magnetic field (Figure 2a and complete data sets are provided Figure 2b, a power-law dependence of V∝I𝛼 behavior is observed,
in Figure S4a in the Supporting Information) clearly depicts and TBKT is 5.3 K where 𝛼 = 3, as indicated by the dash-dot line
the superconducting transition in the graphene/Pb-islands-array in the inset to Figure 2b. The observed BKT transition confirms
hybrid. When cooling from 10 K, the Rs (T) curve exhibits that the graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid is really a 2D super-
semiconductor-like behavior (dR/dT < 0, Region I). Since the conducting system.
shunt effect from the intrinsic Ge (110) substrate is absent at tem- The magnetic-field-tuned SMT is essential for 2DSC, and
peratures below 10 K, the observed semiconductor-like behavior SMT occurs at zero temperature but governs the thermodynam-
is due to the weak localization behavior proposed in 2D metals.[36] ics up to finite temperatures.[20] The characteristic of SMT in
Then, the system undergoes a two-step superconducting transi- graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid can be revealed by detailed
tion process.[9] First, a small decrease in resistance is observed transport measurements near the QCP. Figure 3a presents the
near the critical temperature of bulk Pb (TcPb = 7.2 K, Region II). Rs (T) curves at different magnetic fields (full data in Figure S4b
As when cooling from TcPb , the second transition appears due to in the Supporting Information), showing SMT behavior. The
the Josephson coupling effect and the sheet resistance decreases Rs (T) curves at each field first behave as a weakly localized metal
rapidly in a slide-like shape to the zero-resistance transition tem- (dR/dT < 0) and then transit to a superconducting state (dR/dT
perature Tczero ≈ 0.55K (Region III), where Rs (T) falls below the > 0) at superconducting onset temperature Tc onset (B) (indicated
resolution limit of our instrument (here, 0.1 Ohms). Region IV by black arrows) as the temperature decreases. And, the system

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Figure 3. Emergence of the quantum Griffiths singularity. a) Rs (T) curves measured under perpendicular magnetic fields varying from 0 to 4000 Oe. The
onset superconducting transition temperature Tc onset (B) is defined as the temperature at which dR/dT = 0 as marked with black arrows. b) Rs (B) as a
function of magnetic field at different temperatures varying from 0.06 to 3.9 K. c) A brief B–T phase diagram yields the boundary of the superconducting
state (dR/dT > 0) and the weakly localized state (dR/dT < 0). The blue dots represent Tc onset (B) from the Rs (T) curves (a) and the pink dots are Bcross (T)
representing crossing points of Rs (B) curves (b) at each two adjacent temperatures. The Bcross (T) data extrapolated to zero temperature gives a critical
field B ∗c of ≈3800 Oe. The blue dashed line is the curve fitted using Werthamer–Helfand–Hohenberg (WHH) theory, ln(T0 /T)= 1/2Ψ{1/2 + [(aB +
ibB)/(2𝜋T/T0 )]} + 1/2Ψ{1/2 + [(aB − ibB)/(2𝜋T/T0 )]} − Ψ(1/2) with Ψ denoting the digamma function, a = 2.73 T−1 ,b = 0.55 T−1 , and T0 = 7.2K, giving
a mean-field upper critical field (Bc2 ) of about 3300 Oe. d) Exponent zv as a function of magnetic field B. When approaching the zero-temperature limit,
the zv values for each critical region increase rapidly with no signature of saturation. The solid line shows a fitting based on the activated scaling law.
Two dashed lines represent the constant values with B ∗c ≈ 3800 Oe and zv = 1.

exhibits a complete weak localization behavior once the applied from the Werthamer–Helfand–Hohenberg (WHH) theory (fitted
magnetic field exceeds 3800 Oe. Tc onset (B) shifts monotonically by the blue dashed line),[1,4,38] providing a prediction of mean-
to lower temperatures with increasing magnetic field. To further field upper critical field (Bc2 ) in conventional type-II supercon-
investigate the SMT behavior near the QCP, magnetoresistances ductors under classical phase transition. At zero temperature, the
at temperatures from 50 mK to 4 K are measured, as shown WHH fitting gives a predicted Bc2 value of about 3300 Oe, which
in Figure 3b (Figure S6, Supporting Information). It is intrigu- is far below the real critical field B ∗c (by extrapolation) of about
ing to find that the magnetoresistances cross each other at a se- 3800 Oe. This special upturn is believed to be a consequence of
ries of points in a well-distinguished region. Unlike our previ- the smeared quantum phase transition (QPT) corresponding to
ous experimental observations of the graphene/Sn-islands-array quantum Griffiths singularity.[1–6]
hybrid[8] with two separated crossing points, the appearance of Quantum Griffiths singularity is recognized for its multicross-
multiple crossing points in graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrids ing behavior and a divergent effective critical exponent zv →
is reminiscent of the quantum Griffiths singularity of SMT in ∞.[1–6] To verify the nature of the multiple crossing points, FSS
Ga film.[1] Figure 3c shows a brief B–T phase diagram consist- analysis[20] is performed. In the FSS analysis, at least three curves
ing of Bcross (T) (pink dots, crossing points of two adjacent R–B are required. So, for the purpose of effective analysis, only the crit-
curves from Figure 3b) and Tc onset (B) (blue dots). The tendency ical transition region formed by more than three adjacent Rs (B)
of Bcross (T) dots is in line with that of Tc onset (B) dots and both yield curves can be approximated by one quantum “critical” point. Fi-
the boundary between the superconducting state (dR/dT > 0) and nally, a total of eleven respective “critical” points is obtained in
the weakly localized metallic state (dR/dT < 0): however, the su- the left-hand panels of Figures S7–S9 (Supporting Information).
perconducting boundary exhibits an unusual upturn deviating According to the FSS law, the resistance near the critical point

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(Bc ,Rc ) takes the scaling form expressed thus: Rs (B,T) = Rc F(|B
− Bc |T−1/zv ), where B is the magnetic field, Bc is the “critical”
field, Rc is the “critical” resistance and F(x) represents an ar-
bitrary function of B and T with F(0) = 1. The parameter v is
the correlation length exponent, z represents the dynamical scal-
ing exponent, and 𝛿 = |B − Bc | is the absolute value of distance
from the transition. The FSS analysis for each “critical” point is
shown in the right-hand panels of Figures S7–S9 (Supporting
Information). The derived zv values for each “critical” point are
plotted as a function of magnetic field (Figure 3d): it is seen that
zv values are not constant and diverge as the temperature de-
creases. In addition, the zv values obey an activated scaling law
zv ≈ C|B − B∗c |−𝜐𝜓 and tend to infinite value when the tempera-
ture approaches zero. Here, C is a constant coefficient and 𝜐 ≈
1.2, 𝜓 ≈ 0.5 are the 2D infinite-randomness critical exponents.[1]
Our observation is in good agreement with this activated scaling
law with C = 0.168 and B ∗c ≈ 3800 Oe, as shown by the red solid
line in Figure 3d. The fitting parameter B ∗c agrees with the extrap- Figure 4. Vortex pinning energy of a graphene/superconductor-islands-
olation result in Figure 3c, validating the reliability of our fitting array hybrid. The magnetic field dependent activation energy extracted
process. It is noted that the quantum Griffiths singularity is also from Arrhenius plot analysis fits the thermally-assisted collective vortex-
observed in another graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid prepared creep model in two dimensions expressed as: U(B) = U0 ln(B0 /B), and the
in different batches (Figures S10–S12, Supporting Information), slope U0 corresponds to the vortex pinning energy. The red and blue dots
and fitting parameters C and B ∗c with similar values are obtained represent the activation energies of a graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid
and a graphene/Sn-islands-array hybrid (data extracted from Ref. [8] ), re-
(Figure S13, Supporting Information). spectively. For parallel comparison purpose, the current densities for both
The quantum Griffiths singularity in 2D superconductors was hybrid devices are identical (1 µA mm−1 ) considering the TAFF behavior
first observed in Ga thin film, as a consequence of the forma- is extremely sensitive to changes in current density.[39]
tion of rare regions at ultralow temperature due to quenched
disorder.[1] When approaching zero temperature, rare regions of
inhomogeneous superconducting islands gradually emerge and ence length (Figure S16, Supporting Information), the greater
interact via long-range Josephson coupling to manifest global pinning energy may mainly originate from a stronger quenched
superconductivity.[1] Recent studies show the quantum Griffiths disorder,[7,14] which indicates that strong disorder dominates the
singularity on highly-crystalline superconductors with weak pin- dynamic properties of the superconducting system, thus lead-
ning and disorder.[4] In principle, any static disorder will con- ing to the quantum Griffiths singularity in the graphene/Pb-
tribute to the increase of pinning[7] in a superconducting system, islands-array hybrid. In fact, the assumed stronger disorder in
therefore, the strength of disorder is characterized by the vortex the graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid is verified by the compar-
pinning energy, which is obtained from analysis of the Arrhenius ison of the surface topographies of Pb and Sn nanoislands on
plot.[8,15–19] The Arrhenius plot is often used to study the thermal graphene (Figure S17, Supporting Information). According to
activated flux flow (TAFF) behavior, where sheet resistance be- SEM measurements, the spatial and size distributions of Pb
haves in the form of R∝exp ( − U(B)/kB T),[17–19,39] here, kB is the nanoislands are more disordered in the graphene/Pb-islands-
Boltzmann’s constant and U(B) is the thermal activation energy, array hybrid, and there are considerable amounts of tiny scatter-
which is the slope of the linear fit in the Arrhenius plot. ing islands with only a few nanometers surrounding the core is-
The magnetic field dependent activation energy (Figure S14, lands, which are rare in the graphene/Sn-islands-array hybrid.
Supporting Information) is plotted in Figure 4, which (except The presence of tiny scattered Pb islands will introduce ad-
in the high magnetic field region) is in consistent with the ditional disorder. Meanwhile, the mixed distribution of differ-
thermally-assisted collective vortex-creep model in a 2D system ent sizes of Pb islands will yield inhomogeneous interisland
described by the formula: U(B) = U0 ln(B0 /B),[18,19,40] indicating Josephson coupling energy.[9] Therefore, the vortex pinning en-
the highly 2D nature of the long range vortex–vortex interac- ergies together with the corresponding strength of disorder in
tion in the graphene/superconductor-islands-array hybrid.[41,42] the graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid are much greater than that
The slope U0 of the U(log B) curve in Figure 4 reflects the pin- in the graphene/Sn-islands-array hybrid. It should be noted that,
ning potential in the superconductor.[42] For the graphene/Pb- the strength of the disorder in 2DSC is very complicated, a di-
islands-array hybrid analyzed in the present work, the vortex rect comparison thereof between various 2DSC systems can only
pinning energy is U0Pb = 2.2kB : this is more than three times be achieved if a simple 2DSC system consisting of ordered super-
that of the graphene/Sn-islands-array hybrid (U0Sn = 0.7kB , Fig- conducting metal nanoislands with variable spacing deposited on
ure S15, Supporting Information: data collected from the Sup- graphene can be constructed in the future.
porting Information in Ref. [8] ). Note that the average vortex pin- With this summary of transport measurement results, a com-
ning energy is U02 ∝ 𝛾𝜉 2 , where 𝜉 is the superconducting coher- prehensive B–T phase diagram for graphene/Pb-islands-array hy-
ence length and 𝛾 is the disorder parameter.[7] Due to the fact brid can be established (Figure 5). The boundary of the supercon-
that both graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid and graphene/Sn- ducting region and the weakly localized metal region is character-
islands-array hybrid possess a similar superconducting coher- ized by Tc onset (B) (blue dots) or Bcross (T) (pink dots). Most of the

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platform to investigate the influence of disorder on the QPT in

2DSC.

4. Experimental Section
Monolayer single-crystalline graphene was synthesized on the
hydrogen-terminated intrinsic Ge (110) surfaces via an atmospheric
pressure chemical vapor deposition technique. The chamber was first
evacuated to high vacuum and then aerated by a mixture gas of Ar and H2
to atmospheric pressure. Afterwards, the chamber was heated to 916 °C
and kept at that temperature during the growth progress with a mixture
gas of CH4 , Ar, and H2 for 300 min. Finally, the chamber was quickly
cooled to room temperature under the protection of H2 and Ar.
The Hall bar device was fabricated as follows: first, a 10 nm Ti/100 nm
Au electrode pattern was deposited utilizing a Hall bar stencil mask 1.
Then, the graphene (except in the channel region) was etched by oxygen
plasma aligned with the stencil mask 2. Finally, a 20-nm-thick Pb was de-
posited by electron beam evaporation on the channel region of the Hall
Figure 5. Phase diagram of the graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid. The su- bar device using the designed stencil mask 3.
perconducting dome and the weakly localized metal are separated by the The temperature and magnetic field dependent resistances were mea-
line labelled Tc onset (B) (blue dots) and Bcross (T) (pink dots). The green sured by a physical property measurement system (PPMS-9T, Quantum
dots TTAFF (B) shows the boundary of the thermally-activated flux flow Design). Ultralow temperature was reached in an He3 –He4 dilution refrig-
(TAFF) region. The system eventually evolves into a quantum Griffiths erator (Quantum Design) equipped with a heat capacity cable/RF filter box
(QG) phase when the magnetic field exceeds Bc2 ≈ 3300 Oe (given by to eliminate stray RF currents.
the fitting of WHH theory, blue dash-dot line) to the infinite-randomness
QCP, B ∗c ≈ 3800 Oe
Supporting Information
boundary can be described by WHH theory (blue dash-dot line), Supporting Information is available from the Wiley Online Library or from
as is often observed in conventional type-II superconducting sys- the author.
tems. Inside the WHH trace, the green dots TTAFF (B) defined as
the detachment of the linear fit in the Arrhenius plot[8,10] (marked
with black arrows in Figure S14 in the Supporting Information)
Acknowledgements
shows the boundary of the thermally-activated flux flow (TAFF) X.H., Y.W. contributed equally to this work. The authors thank the fun-
region below which quantum fluctuation overtakes thermal fluc- ders for The Key Research Project of Frontier Science, Chinese Academy
tuations. It is interesting to note that, in addition to the WHH of Sciences (Grant No. QYZDB-SSW-JSC021), National Science and
Technology Major Project (Grant No. 2016ZX02301003), National Nat-
trace, the boundary exhibits a special upturn, which is never ob-
ural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61851401, 11574338,
served in the similar system consisting of a graphene/Sn-islands- 11888101, 11774008, and U1530402), Strategic Priority Research Program
array hybrid[8] (Figure S18, Supporting Information). The spe- (B) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Nos. XDB30030000 and
cial upturn region is found to emerge when the magnetic field XDB28000000), the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant Nos.
exceeds Bc2 , but disappears in a magnetic field above B ∗c . For 2018YFA0305604 and 2017YFA0303302), and the Beijing Natural Science
the upturn region, the superconductivity is dominated by rare Foundation (Grant No. Z180010).
regions and the critical exponent zv diverging at zero tempera-
ture manifests the activated scaling behavior characteristic of the
quantum Griffiths singularity. The obtained B–T phase diagram
Conflict of Interest
matches the proposed Griffiths systems,[1–4] indicating that quan- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
tum Griffiths singularity truly occurs in graphene/Pb-islands-
array hybrids as expected.
Keywords
2D electron gas (2DEG), disorder, quantum Griffiths singularity, quantum
3. Conclusion phase transition (QPT), vortex pinning energy
In conclusion, the Griffiths-type QPT has been reproduced in the
artificial 2D superconducting graphene/Pb-islands-array hybrid. Received: October 12, 2019
Revised: July 26, 2020
The B–T phase diagram shows that quantum Griffiths phase per-
Published online:
sists up to the infinite-randomness QCP (B ∗c ), which exceeds Bc2
from WHH theory. From the comparative experiments under-
taken between Pb and Sn nanoislands on graphene, the observed
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graphene/superconductor-islands-array hybrid provides an ideal X. C. Xie, X. Lin, J. C. Nie, J. Wang, Phys. Rev. B 2016, 94, 144517.

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