In-plane magnetic field-driven symmetry breaking in topological insulator-based three-terminal junctions

Abstract

Topological surface states of three-dimensional topological insulator nanoribbons and their distinct magnetoconductance properties are promising for topoelectronic applications and topological quantum computation. A crucial building block for nanoribbon-based circuits are three-terminal junctions. While the transport of topological surface states on a planar boundary is not directly affected by an in-plane magnetic field, the orbital effect cannot be neglected when the surface states are confined to the boundary of a nanoribbon geometry. Here, we report on the magnetotransport properties of such three-terminal junctions. We observe a dependence of the current on the in-plane magnetic field, with a distinct steering pattern of the surface state current towards a preferred output terminal for different magnetic field orientations. We demonstrate that this steering effect originates from the orbital effect, trapping the phase-coherent surface states in the different legs of the junction on opposite sides of the nanoribbon and breaking the left-right symmetry of the transmission across the junction. The reported magnetotransport properties demonstrate that an in-plane magnetic field is not only relevant but also very useful for the characterization and manipulation of transport in three-dimensional topological insulator nanoribbon-based junctions and circuits, acting as a topoelectric current switch.

arXiv commentMain Text (8 pages, 5 figures) + Supplemental Material (13 pages, 10 figures)

References in corpus (22)

• Fault-tolerant quantum computation by anyons
• Non-abelian statistics of half-quantum vortices in p-wave superconductors
• Non-Abelian statistics and topological quantum information processing in 1D wire networks
• Kwant: a software package for quantum transport
• Aharonov-Bohm interference in topological insulator nanoribbons
• Coexistence of the topological state and a two-dimensional electron gas on the surface of Bi2Se3
• Flux-controlled quantum computation with Majorana fermions
• Coulomb-assisted braiding of Majorana fermions in a Josephson junction array
• Majorana Fermions in Proximity-coupled Topological Insulator Nanowires
• Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in disordered topological insulator nanowires
• Quantum interference and Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in topological insulators
• Top-transmon: hybrid superconducting qubit for parity-protected quantum computation
• Magnetic field induced helical mode and topological transitions in a quasi-ballistic topological insulator nanoribbon with circumferentially quantized surface state sub-bands
• Wormhole Effect in a Strong Topological Insulator
• Stability of Majorana Fermions in Proximity-Coupled Topological Insulator Nanowires
• Quasi-ballistic transport of Dirac fermions in a Bi2Se3 nanowire
• Probing Spin Helical Surface States in Topological HgTe Nanowires
• Pseudo-ballistic transport in 3D topological insulator quantum wires
• Novel self-epitaxy for inducing superconductivity in the topological insulator (Bi1-xSbx)2Te3
• Quantum transport in topological surface states of Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$ nanoribbons
• Magnetotransport signatures of three-dimensional topological insulator nanostructures
• Perfect transmission and Aharanov-Bohm oscillations in topological insulator nanowires with nonuniform cross section