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Noninvasive Probe of Charge Fractionalization in Quantum Spin-Hall Insulators

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2012-05-31 v2 Strongly Correlated Electrons

Abstract

When an electron with well-defined momentum tunnels into a nonchiral Luttinger liquid, it breaks up into two separate wave packets that carry fractional charges and move in opposite directions. A direct observation of this phenomenon has proven elusive, mainly due to single-particle and plasmon backscattering caused by measurement probes. This paper theoretically introduces two topological insulator devices that are naturally suited for detecting fractional charges and their velocities directly and in a noninvasive fashion.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1111.4581,
  title  = {Noninvasive Probe of Charge Fractionalization in Quantum Spin-Hall Insulators},
  author = {Ion Garate and Karyn Le Hur},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1111.4581},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

Revised and extended version. To appear in PRB