Related papers: On the accuracy of conductance quantization in spi…
While the helical character of the edge channels responsible for charge transport in the quantum spin Hall regime of a two-dimensional topological insulator is by now well established, an experimental confirmation that the transport in the…
The search for topologically non-trivial states of matter has become an important goal for condensed matter physics. Recently, a new class of topological insulators has been proposed. These topological insulators have an insulating gap in…
Understanding possible mechanisms, which can lead to suppression of helical edge transport in Quantum Spin Hall (QSH) systems, attracted huge attention right after the first experiments revealing the fragility of the ballistic conductance.…
It is well known that quantum spin Hall (QSH) edge modes being helical are immune to backscattering due to non-magnetic disorder within the sample. Thus, quantum spin Hall edge modes are non-localized and show a vanishing Hall resistance…
The quantum spin Hall (QSH) state, observed in a zero magnetic field in HgTe quantum wells, respects the time-reversal symmetry and is distinct from quantum Hall (QH) states. We show that the QSH state persists in strong quantizing fields…
Quantum spin Hall devices with edges much longer than several microns do not display ballistic transport: that is, their measured conductances are much less than $e^2/h$ per edge. We imaged edge currents in InAs/GaSb quantum wells with long…
It is a conventional wisdom that the helical edge states of quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator are particularly stable due to the topological protection of time-reversal symmetry. Here, we report the first experimental observation of an…
We study transport properties of the helical edge channels of a quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator, in the presence of electron-electron interactions and weak, local Rashba spin-orbit coupling. The combination of the two allows for inelastic…
The Quantum Spin Hall insulator is characterized by the presence of gapless helical edge states where the spin of the charge carriers is locked to their direction of motion. In order to probe the properties of the edge modes, we propose a…
We investigate lateral p-n junctions, electrostatically defined in 14 nm-wide HgTe-based quantum wells (QWs) with inverted band structure. The p-n junctions resistances are close to $h/2e^2$, consistent with some previous experiments on…
Universal properties of spin-Hall effect in ballistic 2D electron systems are addressed. The net spin polarization across the edge of the conductor is second order, ~\lambda^2, in spin-orbit coupling constant independent of the form of the…
The quantization of resistances in the quantum Hall effect and ballistic transport through quantum point contacts is compared with the quantization of the charge relaxation resistance of a coherent mesoscopic capacitor. While the former two…
Four-terminal resistances, both longitudinal and diagonal, of a locally gated graphene device are measured in the quantum-Hall (QH) regime. In sharp distinction from previous two-terminal studies [J. R. Williams \textit{et al.}, Science…
Time-reversal symmetry prohibits elastic backscattering of electrons propagating within a helical edge of a two-dimensional topological insulator. However, small band gaps in these systems make them sensitive to doping disorder, which may…
The third-rank tensor of the static spin Hall conductivity is investigated for two-dimensional (2D) topological insulators by electronic structure calculations. Its seeming quantization is numerically demonstrated for highly symmetric…
Quantum Spin-Hall systems are topological insulators displaying dissipationless spin currents flowing at the edges of the samples. In contradistinction to the Quantum Hall systems where the charge conductance of the edge modes is quantized,…
Following the recent observation of the quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect in HgTe quantum wells, an important issue is to understand the effect of impurities on transport in the QSH regime. Using linear response and renormalization group…
Gapless helical edge modes are a hallmark of the quantum spin Hall effect. Protected by time-reversal symmetry, each edge contributes a quantized zero-temperature conductance quantum $G_0 \equiv e^2/h$. However, the experimentally observed…
We analyze a quantum spin Hall (QSH) device with a point contact connecting two of its edges. The contact supports a net spin tunneling current that can be probed experimentally via a two-terminal resistance measurement. We find that the…
The equilibration between quantum Hall edge modes is known to depend on the disorder potential and the steepness of the edge. Modern samples with higher mobilities and setups with lower electron temperatures call for a further exploration…