{"id":235605,"date":"2026-04-20T22:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/theres-a-range-of-magic-angles-to-study-superconductivity-in-a-twisted-2d-semiconductor"},"modified":"2026-04-20T22:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:31:10","slug":"theres-a-range-of-magic-angles-to-study-superconductivity-in-a-twisted-2d-semiconductor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/theres-a-range-of-magic-angles-to-study-superconductivity-in-a-twisted-2d-semiconductor","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a range of magic angles to study superconductivity in a twisted 2D semiconductor"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year, tungsten diselenide (WSe2<\/sub>) had its magic moment. Two independent research groups discovered \u201cmagic angles\u201d at which two atom-thin layers of the unique semiconductor, when twisted relative to one another into what\u2019s known as a moire pattern, can superconduct electricity. Cory Dean and his colleagues at Columbia documented superconductivity at a 5\u00b0 twist angle<\/a>; upstate at Cornell, Jie Shan and Kin Fai Mak\u2019s team saw it at around 3.5\u00b0<\/a>. Until then, graphene was the only other moire material capable of the feat.<\/p>\n

Writing again in Nature<\/i> on April 1<\/a>, Dean and his colleagues fill in what happens between their observed magic angle and Cornell\u2019s. Though the initial results struck researchers as two potentially distinct types of superconductivity, they are in fact smoothly connected. \u201cGraphene has a magic angle<\/a> of 1.1\u00b0. WSe2<\/sub> has a magic continuum,\u201d said Columbia physics graduate student Yinjie Guo, lead author of both Columbia Nature<\/i> papers.<\/p>\n

That wide continuum of superconducting twist angles<\/a> makes WSe2<\/sub> a more robust platform to explore the phenomenon than graphene, which cannot deviate by more than a tenth of a degree from its magic angle. \u201cThat\u2019s a very specific condition you have to get to, and it\u2019s been a real bottleneck,\u201d noted Dean. \u201cWorking with WSe2<\/sub> is extremely reproducible, which makes it much more possible to build new theories about superconductivity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, tungsten diselenide (WSe2) had its magic moment. Two independent research groups discovered \u201cmagic angles\u201d at which two atom-thin layers of the unique semiconductor, when twisted relative to one another into what\u2019s known as a moire pattern, can superconduct electricity. Cory Dean and his colleagues at Columbia documented superconductivity at a 5\u00b0 twist angle; [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1635,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-materials","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}