Spin transport in ferromagnet-InSb nanowire quantum devices

Understand

Signatures of Majorana zero modes (MZMs), which are the building blocks for fault-tolerant topological quantum computing, have been observed in semiconductor nanowires (NW) with strong spin-orbital-interaction (SOI), such as InSb and InAs NWs with proximity-induced superconductivity.

• Realizing topological superconductivity and MZMs in this most widely-studied platform also requires eliminating spin degeneracy, which is realized by applying a magnetic field to induce a helical gap.
• However, the applied field can adversely impact the induced superconducting state in the NWs and also places geometric restrictions on the device, which can affect scaling of future MZM-based quantum registers.
• These challenges could be circumvented by integrating magnetic elements with the NWs.