Spin-polarized tunneling current through a thin film of topological insulator in a parallel magnetic field

Abstract

We calculate the tunneling conductance σbetween the surface states on the opposite sides of the ultra-thin film of a topological insulator in a parallel magnetic field B_y. The parallel magnetic produces a relative shift of the in-plane momenta of the two surfaces states. An overlap between the shifted Fermi circles and their spin structure define an unusual dependence of the tunneling conductance σ(B_y) on the magnetic field. Because the spin of the electronic surface states in topological insulators is locked with momentum, the spin-polarization of the tunneling current can be controlled by magnetic field B_y.

5 pages, 3 figures; Section V edited and extended

References in corpus (11)

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Topological insulator based spin valve devices: evidence for spin polarized transport of spin-momentum-locked topological surface states
• Observation of Planar Hall Effect in Topological Insulator -- Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$
• Effects of a tilted magnetic field in a Dirac double layer
• Signature of surface state coupling in thin films of the topological Kondo insulator SmB${}_6$ from anisotropic magnetoresistance
• Promoted current-induced spin polarization in inversion symmetry broken topological insulator thin films