Nature Communications (Jan 2024)

Tunable quantum interferometer for correlated moiré electrons

  • Shuichi Iwakiri,
  • Alexandra Mestre-Torà,
  • Elías Portolés,
  • Marieke Visscher,
  • Marta Perego,
  • Giulia Zheng,
  • Takashi Taniguchi,
  • Kenji Watanabe,
  • Manfred Sigrist,
  • Thomas Ihn,
  • Klaus Ensslin

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44671-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Abstract Magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene can host a variety of gate-tunable correlated states – including superconducting and correlated insulator states. Recently, junction-based superconducting moiré devices have been introduced, enabling the study of the charge, spin and orbital nature of superconductivity, as well as the coherence of moiré electrons in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene. Complementary fundamental coherence effects—in particular, the Little–Parks effect in a superconducting ring and the Aharonov–Bohm effect in a normally conducting ring – have not yet been reported in moiré devices. Here, we observe both phenomena in a single gate-defined ring device, where we can embed a superconducting or normally conducting ring in a correlated or band insulator. The Little–Parks effect is seen in the superconducting phase diagram as a function of density and magnetic field, confirming the effective charge of 2e. We also find that the coherence length of conducting moiré electrons exceeds several microns at 50 mK. In addition, we identify a regime characterized by h/e-periodic oscillations but with superconductor-like nonlinear transport.