paper

Link between thermodynamic correlation signatures and superconductivity in twisted trilayer graphene

arXiv:2509.07977 · doi:10.1038/s41565-026-02155-8

Abstract

Twisted graphene multilayers exhibit strong electronic correlations, which manifest in a range of experimental signatures. Yet how these signatures relate to each other and the microscopic ground states-and how twist angle and band structure reshape them-remains poorly understood. Here we study this interplay by correlating local thermodynamic and transport measurements in a twisted trilayer graphene (TTG) sample with unequal angles and flat electronic bands. We use a scanning single-electron transistor to map the impact of electron-electron interactions in a region of the sample where the local twist angle evolves smoothly. We observe gapped correlated insulators and a sawtooth in electronic compressibility, both exhibiting pronounced electron-hole (e-h) asymmetry with distinct magic angles for conduction and valence bands. Subsequent transport measurements in the same region reveal robust superconductivity with a similar e-h asymmetry. Our measurements indicate that superconductivity is not directly tied to the correlated insulators. Instead, its critical temperature correlates closely with the strength of the sawtooth in compressibility, suggesting a common origin or link between the two. By combining a local probe with transport measurements, we uncover connections between superconductivity and thermodynamic correlation signatures that are not apparent from either technique in isolation, highlighting the power of our dual approach and establishing their dependence on interlayer twist angles in TTG.

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