Singlet and triplet Cooper pair splitting in hybrid superconducting nanowires

Kavli Affiliate: Michael Wimmer

| First 5 Authors: Guanzhong Wang, Tom Dvir, Grzegorz P. Mazur, Chun-Xiao Liu, Nick van Loo

| Summary:

In most naturally occurring superconductors, electrons with opposite spins
are paired up to form Cooper pairs. This includes both conventional $s$-wave
superconductors such as aluminum as well as high-$T_text{c}$, $d$-wave
superconductors. Materials with intrinsic $p$-wave superconductivity, hosting
Cooper pairs made of equal-spin electrons, have not been conclusively
identified, nor synthesized, despite promising progress. Instead, engineered
platforms where $s$-wave superconductors are brought into contact with magnetic
materials have shown convincing signatures of equal-spin pairing. Here, we
directly measure equal-spin pairing between spin-polarized quantum dots. This
pairing is proximity-induced from an $s$-wave superconductor into a
semiconducting nanowire with strong spin-orbit interaction. We demonstrate such
pairing by showing that breaking a Cooper pair can result in two electrons with
equal spin polarization. Our results demonstrate controllable detection of
singlet and triplet pairing between the quantum dots. Achieving such triplet
pairing in a sequence of quantum dots will be required for realizing an
artificial Kitaev chain.

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