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  • Featured in Physics
  • Open Access

Coulomb Screening of Superconductivity in Magic-Angle Graphene

Julien Barrier1,2,*, Liangtao Peng3, Shuigang Xu2, Christophe De Beule4,5, V. I. Fal’ko1,2,6, K. Watanabe7, T. Tanigushi7, A. K. Geim1,2,§, Shaffique Adam3,8,‡ et al.

Alexey I. Berdyugin8,9,1,†

  • *Present address: Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
  • †Contact author: alexey@nus.edu
  • ‡Contact author: shaffique@wustl.edu
  • §Contact author: geim@manchester.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. X 16, 031040 – Published 17 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/z9qg-287y

Abstract

The origin of superconductivity in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene has been a subject of intense debate. While some experimental evidence indicated an unconventional pairing mechanism which should be sensitive to Coulomb screening, experimental attempts to tune the critical temperature by screening Coulomb interactions so far have remained unsuccessful, possibly indicating a conventional phonon-mediated pairing. Here we study a double-layer electronic system consisting of two twisted graphene bilayers in immediate proximity of each other but remaining electronically decoupled. By increasing the carrier density in one bilayer, we completely suppressed both the superconductivity and the correlated-insulator state in the adjacent magic-angle graphene. The observation of such an effect from screening offers support for an unconventional mechanism of Cooper pairing in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, shedding new light on the underlying physics governing their properties.

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Bilayer Graphene’s Magic Revealed

Published 17 August, 2026

New experiments suggest that superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene depends on an unconventional electron-pairing mechanism.

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Popular Summary

Determining whether superconductivity in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene originates from conventional atomic vibrations or exotic electron-electron interactions has remained an important dispute in condensed matter physics. We resolved this debate by placing a metallic layer which creates tunable screening in subnanometer proximity to the magic-angle graphene to suppress the Coulomb interactions between electrons. We observed that weakening these electronic interactions strongly suppressed the superconducting critical temperature, pointing that the pairing mechanism is driven by electron-electron interactions rather than phonons. This electronic pairing is often suggested to be analogous to the mechanism suspected in copper oxide high-temperature superconductors. Our work places important constraints on the microscopic origins of moiré superconductivity and brings us a step closer to understanding the behavior of high-temperature superconductors.

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Phys. Rev. X 16, 031040– Published 17 August, 2026
  • Received 3 November 2025
  • Revised 20 February 2026
  • Accepted 9 June 2026
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