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Superconductivity in 5.0° twisted bilayer WSe2

Nature volume 637, pages 839–845 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The discovery of superconductivity in twisted bilayer and trilayer graphene1,2,3,4,5 has generated tremendous interest. The key feature of these systems is an interplay between interlayer coupling and a moiré superlattice that gives rise to low-energy flat bands with strong correlations6. Flat bands can also be induced by moiré patterns in lattice-mismatched and/or twisted heterostructures of other two-dimensional materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs)7,8. Although a wide range of correlated phenomena have indeed been observed in moiré TMDs9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19, robust demonstration of superconductivity has remained absent9. Here we report superconductivity in 5.0° twisted bilayer WSe2 with a maximum critical temperature of 426 mK. The superconducting state appears in a limited region of displacement field and density that is adjacent to a metallic state with a Fermi surface reconstruction believed to arise from AFM order20. A sharp boundary is observed between the superconducting and magnetic phases at low temperature, reminiscent of spin fluctuation-mediated superconductivity21. Our results establish that moiré flat-band superconductivity extends beyond graphene structures. Material properties that are absent in graphene but intrinsic among TMDs, such as a native band gap, large spin–orbit coupling, spin-valley locking and magnetism, offer the possibility of accessing a broader superconducting parameter space than graphene-only structures.

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Fig. 1: Electronic band structure and the superconducting pocket.
Fig. 2: Superconductivity in tWSe2.
Fig. 3: Magnetism and phase diagram.
Fig. 4: Temperature dependence of the superconducting boundary.

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Data availability

The data relevant to figures in the main text are available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13910339 (ref. 56). Additional raw data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research on superconductivity in tWSe2 structures is solely supported as part of Programmable Quantum Materials, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, under award no. DE-SC0019443. WSe2 was synthesized by J.H. and K.B. with the support of the Columbia University Materials Science and Engineering Research Center, through NSF grant no. DMR-2011738. D.G.M. and M.C. acknowledge support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative (grant no. GBMF9069). K.W. and T.T. acknowledge support from JSPS KAKENHI (grant nos. 21H05233 and 23H02052) and the World Premier International Research Center Initiative, MEXT, Japan. J.H. and C.R.D. acknowledge additional support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative (grant no. GBMF10277).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Yinjie Guo, Jordan Pack, Joshua Swann, Andrew J. Millis, Abhay Pasupathy & Cory R. Dean

  2. Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Luke Holtzman & Katayun Barmak

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Matthew Cothrine & David G. Mandrus

  4. Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan

    Kenji Watanabe

  5. Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan

    Takashi Taniguchi

  6. Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

    David G. Mandrus

  7. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    James Hone

  8. Center for Computational Quantum Physics, Flatiron Institute, New York, NY, USA

    Andrew J. Millis

  9. Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA

    Abhay Pasupathy

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Contributions

Y.G. fabricated the device. Y.G., J.P., J.S. and C.R.D. performed electronic transport measurements and analysed data. L.H. grew WSe2 crystals under the supervision of J.H. and K.B. M.C. grew α-RuCl3 crystals under the supervision of D.G.M. K.W. and T.T. grew hexagonal boron nitride crystals. A.M. performed theoretical modelling. Y.G., A.J.M., A.P. and C.R.D. wrote the manuscript, with input from all authors.

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Correspondence to Cory R. Dean.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–15 and references.

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Guo, Y., Pack, J., Swann, J. et al. Superconductivity in 5.0° twisted bilayer WSe2. Nature 637, 839–845 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08381-1

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