Correlated Insulating States and Transport Signature of Superconductivity in Twisted Trilayer Graphene Superlattices

Layers of two-dimensional materials stacked with a small twist angle give rise to beating periodic patterns on a scale much larger than the original lattice, referred to as a “moiré superlattice” [1] [2]. Here, we demonstrate a higher-order “moiré of moiré” superlattice in twisted trilayer graphene with two consecutive small twist angles. We report correlated insulating states near the half filling of the moiré of moiré superlattice at an extremely low carrier density (∼10¹⁰ cm⁻²), near which we also report a zero-resistance transport behavior typically expected in a 2D superconductor. The full-occupancy (ν = −4 and ν = 4) states are semimetallic and gapless, distinct from the twisted bilayer systems.

 

[1] Y. Cao et al., Nature (London) 556, 43 303 (2018).

[2] X. Zhang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 166802 (2021).