Geometrically induced reversion of Hall current in a topological insulator cavity

Abstract

An electric charge near the surface of a topological insulator induces an image magnetic monopole. Here, we show that if the topological insulator surface has a negative curvature, namely in the case of a semispherical cavity, the induced Hall current reverses its rotation as the electric charge crosses the semisphere geometric focus. Such a reversion is shown to be equivalent of inverting the charge of the image magnetic monopole. We also discuss upon the case of a semicylindrical cavity, where Hall current reversion appears to be feasible of probing in realistic experiments.

6 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Topological Field Theory of Time-Reversal Invariant Insulators
• Magnetic monopole and string excitations in a two-dimensional spin ice
• Half-integer quantum Hall effect of disordered Dirac fermions at a topological insulator surface

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Dirac-Surface-State-Dominated Spin to Charge Current Conversion in the Topological Insulator $(B{i}_{0.22}S{b}_{0.78}{)}_{2}T{e}_3$ Films at Room Temperature
• Optical response of a topological-insulator--quantum-dot hybrid interacting with a probe electric field
• New polarization rotation and exact TEM wave solutions in topological insulators
• Dual topological insulator with mirror symmetry protected helical edge states
• Generalized method of image dyons for quasi-two dimensional slabs with ordinary-topological insulator interfaces