Signatures of topology in ballistic bulk transport of HgTe quantum wells

Abstract

We calculate bulk transport properties of two-dimensional topological insulators based on HgTe quantum wells in the ballistic regime. Interestingly, we find that the conductance and the shot noise are distinctively different for the so-called normal regime (the topologically trivial case) and the so-called inverted regime (the topologically non-trivial case). Thus, it is possible to verify the topological order of a two-dimensional topological insulator not only via observable edge properties but also via observable bulk properties. This is important because we show that under certain conditions the bulk contribution can dominate the edge contribution which makes it essential to fully understand the former for the interpretation of future experiments in clean samples.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (12)

• Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Topological Insulators with Inversion Symmetry
• A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase : Experimental observation of first strong topological insulator
• Quantum-limited shot noise in graphene
• The Helical Liquid and the Edge of Quantum Spin Hall Systems
• Oscillatory crossover from two dimensional to three dimensional topological insulators
• Finite size effects of helical edge states in HgTe/CdTe quantum wells
• A General Theorem Relating the Bulk Topological Number to Edge States in Two-dimensional Insulators
• Shot Noise in Ballistic Graphene
• Temperature dependence of the conductivity of ballistic graphene
• Optical manipulation of edge state transport in HgTe quantum wells in the quantum hall regime

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Topological insulators and superconductors
• Spin-helical transport in normal and superconducting topological insulators
• Anomalous Electron Trajectory in Topological Insulators
• Interplay of chiral and helical states in a Quantum Spin Hall Insulator lateral junction
• Transition between ordinary and topological insulator regimes in two-dimensional resonant magnetotransport
• Andreev spectroscopy of doped HgTe quantum wells
• Transport through quantum spin Hall insulator/metal junctions in graphene ribbons
• Interplay of bulk and edge states in transport of two-dimensional topological insulators
• Spin Hall effect at interfaces between HgTe/CdTe quantum wells and metals
• Influence of bulk inversion asymmetry on the magneto-optical spectrum of a HgTe topological insulator
• Bulk transport through superconducting hybrid structures in HgTe quantum wells