Topological Phases in InAs$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$: From Novel Topological Semimetal to Majorana Wire

Understand

Superconductor proximitized one-dimensional semiconductor nanowires with strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI) are at this time the most promising candidates for the realization of topological quantum information processing.

• In current experiments the SOI originates predominantly from extrinsic fields, induced by finite size effects and applied gate voltages.
• The dependence of the topological transition in these devices on microscopic details makes scaling to a large number of devices difficult unless a material with dominant intrinsic bulk SOI is used.
• Here we show that wires made of certain ordered alloys InAs$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$ have spin-splittings up to 20 times larger than those reached in pristine InSb wires.