Spin-based Mach-Zehnder interferometry in topological insulator p-n junctions

Abstract

A p-n junction, an interface between two regions of a material populated with carriers of opposite charge, is a basic building block of solid state electronic devices. From the fundamental physics perspective, it often serves as a tool to reveal the unconventional transport behavior of novel materials. In this work, we show that a p-n junction made from a three dimensional topological insulator (3DTI) in a magnetic field realizes an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer with virtually perfect visibility. This is owed to the confinement of the topological Dirac fermion state to a closed two-dimensional surface, which offers the unprecedented possibility of utilizing external fields to design networks of chiral modes wrapping around the bulk in closed trajectories, without the need of complex constrictions or etching. Remarkably, this junction also acts as a spin filter, where the path of the particle is tied to the direction of spin propagation. It therefore constitutes a novel and highly tunable spintronic device where spin polarized input and output currents are naturally formed and could be accessed and manipulated seperately.

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Cited by in corpus (20)

• Emergent Phenomena Induced by Spin-Orbit Coupling at Surfaces and Interfaces
• In-plane Topological p-n Junction in the Three-Dimensional Topological Insulator Bi${}_{2-x}$Sb${}_x$Te${}_{3-y}$Se${}_y$
• Pseudo-ballistic transport in 3D topological insulator quantum wires
• Persistent Optical Gating of a Topological Insulator
• Reversal of thermoelectric current in tubular nanowires
• Chiral interface states in graphene $p$-$n$ junctions
• Disentangling surface and bulk transport in topological-insulator $p$-$n$ junctions
• Configuration-Sensitive Transport on Domain Walls of a Magnetic Topological Insulator
• Conductance fluctuations and disorder induced $\nu =0$ quantum Hall plateau in topological insulator nanowires
• Transport in Selectively Magnetically Doped Topological Insulator Wires
• Transport in topological insulator nanowires
• Thermoelectric current in topological insulator nanowires with impurities
• Quantum transport through three-dimensional topological insulator p-n junction under magnetic field
• Classical topological paramagnetism
• Selective generation and amplification of RKKY interactions by P-N interface
• Manipulating quantum channels in weak topological insulator nanoarchitectures
• Transport in a thin topological insulator with potential and magnetic barriers
• Anisotropic transport properties in prismatic topological insulator nanowires
• Atomically Abrupt Topological p-n Junction
• Super-resonant transport of topological surface states subjected to in-plane magnetic fields