Theory of correlated insulators and superconductor at ν = 1 in twisted WSe<sub>2</sub>.

Kim, Sunghoon; Mendez-Valderrama, Juan Felipe; Wang, Xuepeng; Chowdhury, Debanjan · Nat Commun · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The observation of a superconducting phase, an intertwined insulating phase, and a continuous transition between the two at a commensurate filling of ν = 1 in bilayers of twisted WSe<sub>2</sub> at θ = 3.65<sup>0</sup> raises a number of intriguing questions about the origin of this phenomenology. Here we report the possibility of a displacement-field induced continuous transition between a superconductor and a quantum spin-liquid Mott insulator at ν = 1, starting with a simplified three-orbital model of twisted WSe<sub>2</sub>, including on-site, nearest-neighbor density-density interactions, and a chiral-exchange interaction, respectively. By employing parton mean-field theory, we discuss the nature of these correlated insulators, their expected evolution with the displacement-field, and their phenomenological properties.