TY - JOUR

T1 - Mesoscopic transport in two-dimensional topological insulators

AU - Gusev, G. M.

AU - Kvon, Z. D.

AU - Olshanetsky, E. B.

AU - Mikhailov, N. N.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Copyright: Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2019/11/1

Y1 - 2019/11/1

N2 - Topological states of matter have attracted a lot of attention due to their many intriguing transport properties. In particular, two-dimensional topological insulators (2D TI) possess gapless counter propagating conducting edge channels, with opposite spin, that are topologically protected from backscattering. Two basic features are supposed to confirm the existence of the ballistic edge channels in the submicrometer limit: the 4-terminal conductance is expected to be quantized at the universal value 2e2/h, and a nonlocal signal should appear due to a net current along the sample edge, carried by the helical states. On the other hand for longer channels the conductance has been found to deviate from the quantized value. This article reviewer the experimental and theoretical work related to the transport in two-dimensional topological insulators (2D-TI), based on HgTe quantum wells in zero magnetic field. We provide an overview of the basic mechanisms predicting a deviation from the quantized transport due to backscattering (accompanied by spin-flips) between the helical channels. We discuss the details of the model, which takes into account the edge and bulk contribution to the total current and reproduces the experimental results.

AB - Topological states of matter have attracted a lot of attention due to their many intriguing transport properties. In particular, two-dimensional topological insulators (2D TI) possess gapless counter propagating conducting edge channels, with opposite spin, that are topologically protected from backscattering. Two basic features are supposed to confirm the existence of the ballistic edge channels in the submicrometer limit: the 4-terminal conductance is expected to be quantized at the universal value 2e2/h, and a nonlocal signal should appear due to a net current along the sample edge, carried by the helical states. On the other hand for longer channels the conductance has been found to deviate from the quantized value. This article reviewer the experimental and theoretical work related to the transport in two-dimensional topological insulators (2D-TI), based on HgTe quantum wells in zero magnetic field. We provide an overview of the basic mechanisms predicting a deviation from the quantized transport due to backscattering (accompanied by spin-flips) between the helical channels. We discuss the details of the model, which takes into account the edge and bulk contribution to the total current and reproduces the experimental results.

KW - Edge states

KW - Quantized transport

KW - Spintronics

KW - Topological insulator

KW - STATES

KW - QUANTUM

KW - BAND

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072918931&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ssc.2019.113701

DO - 10.1016/j.ssc.2019.113701

M3 - Review article

AN - SCOPUS:85072918931

VL - 302

JO - Solid State Communications

JF - Solid State Communications

SN - 0038-1098

M1 - 113701

ER -