Resistance of helical edges formed in a semiconductor heterostructure

Abstract

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 lead to the formation of electron and hole puddles. Such a puddle -- a quantum dot -- tunnel-coupled to the edge may significantly enhance the inelastic backscattering rate, due to the long dwelling time of an electron in the dot. The added resistance is especially strong for dots carrying an odd number of electrons, due to the Kondo effect. For the same reason, the temperature dependence of the added resistance becomes rather weak. We present a detailed theory of the quantum dot effect on the helical edge resistance. It allows us to make specific predictions for possible future experiments with artificially prepared dots in topological insulators. It also provides a qualitative explanation of the resistance fluctuations observed in short HgTe quantum wells. In addition to the single-dot theory, we develop a statistical description of the helical edge resistivity introduced by random charge puddles in a long heterostructure carrying helical edge states. The presence of charge puddles in long samples may explain the observed coexistence of a high sample resistance with the propagation of electrons along the sample edges.

arXiv commentUpdated to match the published journal version

References in corpus (24)

• Topological insulators and superconductors
• Quantum Spin Hall Effect in Graphene
• Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells
• $Z_2$ Topological Order and the Quantum Spin Hall Effect
• Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Nonlocal edge state transport in the quantum spin Hall state
• The Quantum Spin Hall Effect: Theory and Experiment
• Quantum Spin Hall Effect in Inverted Type II Semiconductors
• The Helical Liquid and the Edge of Quantum Spin Hall Systems
• The Kondo Effect in the Unitary Limit
• Quasiparticle Lifetime in a Finite System: A Non--Perturbative Approach
• Stability of the quantum spin Hall effect: effects of interactions, disorder, and Z_2 topology
• Quantum Effects in Coulomb Blockade
• Imaging currents in HgTe quantum wells in the quantum spin Hall regime
• Helical edge resistance introduced by charge puddles
• Inelastic electron backscattering in a generic helical edge channel
• Topology, Delocalization via Average Symmetry and the Symplectic Anderson Transition
• Conductance of a helical edge liquid coupled to a magnetic impurity
• Images of edge current in InAs/GaSb quantum wells
• Phonon induced backscattering in helical edge states
• Conductivity of a generic helical liquid
• Localization at the Edge of 2D Topological Insulator by Kondo Impurities with Random Anisotropies
• Spatially resolved study of backscattering in the quantum spin Hall state
• Mesoscopic fluctuations of conductance of a helical edge contaminated by magnetic impurities

Cited by in corpus (98)

• Observation of the Quantum Spin Hall Effect up to 100 Kelvin in a Monolayer Crystal
• Edge conduction in monolayer WTe2
• Gate-controlled topological conducting channels in bilayer graphene
• Josephson radiation from gapless Andreev bound states in HgTe-based topological junctions
• Observation of a Helical Luttinger-Liquid in InAs/GaSb Quantum Spin Hall Edges
• Transport in two-dimensional topological materials: recent developments in experiment and theory
• Spontaneous breakdown of topological protection in two dimensions
• Atomically Thin Quantum Spin Hall Insulators
• Failure of conductance quantization in two-dimensional topological insulators due to non-magnetic impurities
• Effects of nuclear spins on the transport properties of the edge of two-dimensional topological insulators
• 2024 roadmap on 2D topological insulators
• Enhanced electron dephasing in three-dimensional topological insulators
• Magnetic moments in a helical edge can make weak correlations seem strong
• Gate-controlled semimetal-topological insulator transition in an InAs/GaSb heterostructure
• Noise-induced backscattering in a quantum-spin-Hall edge
• Helical Liquids in Semiconductors
• Backscattering in helical edge states from a magnetic impurity and Rashba disorder
• Emergent quantum Hall effects below $50$ mT in a two-dimensional topological insulator
• Photogalvanic effect in HgTe/CdTe topological insulator due to edge-bulk optical transitions
• Determination of the spin axis in quantum spin Hall insulator monolayer WTe2
• Indirect exchange interaction between magnetic impurities near the helical edge
• Mesoscopic transport in two-dimensional topological insulators
• Transport in helical Luttinger Liquid with Kondo impurities
• Gapless insulating edges of dirty interacting topological insulators
• Topological Protection from Random Rashba Spin-Orbit Backscattering: Ballistic Transport in a Helical Luttinger Liquid
• Time-resolved pure spin fractionalization and spin-charge separation in helical Luttinger liquid based devices
• Helical edge transport in the presence of a magnetic impurity
• Low-Temperature Conductivity of Weakly Interacting Quantum Spin Hall Edges in Strained-Layer InAs/GaInSb
• Topological insulators based on HgTe
• Dynamical separation of bulk and edge transport in HgTe-based 2D topological insulators
• Nontrivial interplay of strong disorder and interactions in quantum spin-Hall insulators doped with dilute magnetic impurities
• Current noise from a magnetic moment in a helical edge
• Probing one-dimensional systems via noise magnetometry with single spin qubits
• Effects of charge dopants in quantum spin Hall materials
• Helical edge transport in the presence of a magnetic impurity: the role of local anisotropy
• Helical spin thermoelectrics controlled by a side-coupled magnetic quantum dot in the quantum spin Hall state
• Materials considerations for forming the topological insulator phase in InAs/GaSb heterostructures
• Signatures of dephasing by mirror-symmetry breaking in weak-antilocalization magnetoresistance across the topological transition in Pb${}_{1-x}$Sn${}_x$Se
• Direct manifestation of band topology in the winding number of the Wannier-Stark ladder
• Magnetotransport in disordered two-dimensional topological insulators: signatures of charge puddles
• Signatures of Helical Edge Transport in Millimetre-Scale Thin Films of Na3Bi
• Electronic states induced by nonmagnetic defects in two-dimensional topological insulators
• Transient dynamics of spin-polarized injection in helical Luttinger liquids
• Backscattering in a helical liquid induced by Rashba spin-orbit coupling and electron interactions: locality, symmetry, and cutoff aspects
• Two-dimensional topological insulator edge state backscattering by dephasing
• Unrestricted electron bunching at the helical edge
• Microwave studies of the fractional Josephson effect in HgTe-based Josephson junctions
• Quantitative theory of backscattering in topological HgTe and (Hg,Mn)Te quantum wells: acceptor states, Kondo effect, precessional dephasing, and bound magnetic polaron
• Interaction Protected Topological Insulators with Time Reversal Symmetry
• Optical properties of helical edge channels in zinc-blende-type topological insulators: Selection rules, circular and linear dichroism, circular and linear photocurrents
• Quantum Phase Transition and Protected Ideal Transport in a Kondo Chain
• Controlling spin polarization of a quantum dot via a helical edge state
• Breakdown of helical edge state topologically protected conductance in time-reversal-breaking excitonic insulators
• $8\pi$-periodic dissipationless ac Josephson effect on a quantum spin-Hall edge via a Quantum magnetic impurity
• Finite frequency backscattering current noise at a helical edge
• Theory of Glide Symmetry Protected Helical Edge States in WTe${}_2$ Monolayer
• Interplay of quantum spin Hall effect and spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking in electron-hole bilayers I: Transport properties
• Chiral Lattice Supersolid on Edges of Quantum Spin Hall Samples
• Conductivity of a two-dimensional HgTe layer near the critical width: The role of developed edge states network and random mixture of $p$- and $n$-domains
• Protection of Edge transport in Quantum Spin Hall samples: Spin-Symmetry Based General Approach and Examples
• Elastic backscattering of quantum spin Hall edge modes from Coulomb interactions with non-magnetic impurities
• Composite helical edges from Abelian fractional topological insulators
• Conductance oscillations in quantum point contacts of InAs/GaSb heterostructures
• Velocity and confinement of edge plasmons in HgTe-based 2D topological insulators
• Gap formation in helical edge states with magnetic impurities
• Tunneling Aharonov-Bohm interferometer on helical edge states
• Analytical and Numerical study of the out-of-equilibrium current through a helical edge coupled to a magnetic impurity
• Current-induced switching of magnetic molecules on topological insulator surfaces
• Suppression of ballistic helical transport by isotropic dynamical magnetic impurities
• Conductance suppression by nonmagnetic point defects in helical edge channels of two-dimensional topological insulators
• Robustness of Helical Edge States Under Edge Reconstruction
• The effect of magnetic impurity scattering on transport in topological insulators
• Unprotected edge modes in quantum spin Hall insulator candidate materials
• Flux sensitivity of quantum spin Hall rings
• Edge spin transport in the disordered two-dimensional topological insulator WTe${}_2$
• Orbital Kondo effect in fractional quantum Hall systems
• Interplay between intrinsic and emergent topological protection on interacting helical modes
• Chiral detection of Majorana bound states at the edge of a quantum spin Hall insulator
• Multi-probe analysis to separate edge currents from bulk currents in quantum spin Hall insulators and to analyze their temperature dependence
• Voltage control of the quantum scattering time in InAs/GaSb/InAs trilayer quantum wells
• Optical transitions in two-dimensional topological insulators with point defects
• Transport in quantum spin Hall edges in contact to a quantum dot
• Magnetic-field-driven redistribution between extended and localized electronic states in high-mobility Si MOSFETs at low temperatures
• Effects of electron-hole asymmetry on electronic structure of helical edge states in HgTe/HgCdTe quantum wells
• Interaction- and phonon-induced topological phase transitions in double helical liquids
• Spin-polarized voltage probes for helical edge state: a model study
• Suppressing backscattering of helical edge modes with a spin bath
• Effects of the Vertices on the Topological Bound States in a Quasicrystalline Topological Insulator
• Dynamic impurities in two-dimensional topological insulator-edge states
• Unidirectional magneto-transport of linearly dispersing topological edge states
• Finite-temperature spectroscopy of dirty helical Luttinger liquids
• Dissipative Hot-spot Enabled Shock and Bounce Dynamics via Terahertz Quantum Quenches in Helical Edge States
• Thermal dissipation of the quantum spin Hall edge states in HgTe/CdTe quantum well
• Robust Majorana bound state in pseudo-spin domain wall of 2-D topological insulator
• A non-magnetic mechanism of backscattering in helical edge states
• Edge Reconstruction in a Quantum Spin Hall Insulator
• Microwave Photocurrent from the Helical Edge state of InAs/GaInSb Bilayers
• Counterpropagating topological and quantum Hall edge channels