Singlet and triplet Cooper pair splitting in superconducting-semiconducting hybrid nanowires

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-$T_c$, $d$-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, proximity-induced from an $s$-wave superconductor into a semiconducting nanowire with strong spin-orbit interaction. We demonstrate such pairing using spin-selective quantum dots 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 in the proximitized nanowire. Achieving such triplet pairing in a sequence of quantum dots will be required for realizing an artificial Kitaev chain.