Fabry-Pérot interferometry with gate-tunable 3D topological insulator nanowires

Abstract

Three-dimensional topological insulator (3D TI) nanowires display various interesting magnetotransport properties that can be attributed to their spin-momentum-locked surface states such as quasiballistic transport and Aharonov-Bohm oscillations. Here, we focus on the transport properties of a 3D TI nanowire with a gated section that forms an electronic Fabry-Pérot (FP) interferometer that can be tuned to act as a surface-state filter or energy barrier. By tuning the carrier density and length of the gated section of the wire, the interference pattern can be controlled and the nanowire can become fully transparent for certain topological surface-state input modes while completely filtering out others. We also consider the interplay of FP interference with an external magnetic field, with which Klein tunneling can be induced, and transverse asymmetry of the gated section, e.g., due to a top-gated structure, which displays an interesting analogy with Rashba nanowires. Due to its rich conductance phenomenology, we propose a 3D TI nanowire with gated section as an ideal setup for a detailed transport-based characterization of 3D TI nanowire surface states near the Dirac point, which could be useful towards realizing 3D TI nanowire-based topological superconductivity and Majorana bound states.

arXiv comment22 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (33)

• Topological Insulators
• Topological insulators and superconductors
• Majorana Fermions and a Topological Phase Transition in Semiconductor-Superconductor Heterostructures
• Helical liquids and Majorana bound states in quantum wires
• First direct observation of Spin-textures in Topological Insulators : Spin-resolved ARPES as a probe of topological quantum spin Hall effect and Berry's phase
• Model Hamiltonian for Topological Insulators
• Majorana Fermions in Proximity-coupled Topological Insulator Nanowires
• Distinct Signatures For Coulomb Blockade and Aharonov-Bohm Interference in Electronic Fabry-Perot Interferometers
• Theory of the Fabry-Perot Quantum Hall Interferometer
• One-dimensional helical transport in topological insulator nanowire interferometers
• Aharonov-Bohm Oscillations in a Quasi-Ballistic 3D Topological Insulator Nanowire
• Magnetic field induced helical mode and topological transitions in a quasi-ballistic topological insulator nanoribbon with circumferentially quantized surface state sub-bands
• Stability of Majorana Fermions in Proximity-Coupled Topological Insulator Nanowires
• Full electrical control of Charge and Spin conductance through Interferometry of Edge States in Topological Insulators
• Fabry-Perot Interferometry with Fractional Charges
• Signatures of interaction-induced helical gaps in nanowire quantum point contacts
• Quasi-ballistic transport of Dirac fermions in a Bi2Se3 nanowire
• Probing Spin Helical Surface States in Topological HgTe Nanowires
• Electrically Controlled Pumping of Spin Currents in Topological Insulators
• Quantum confinement of the Dirac surface states in topological-insulator nanowires
• Electrical switching and interferometry of massive Dirac particles in topological insulators constrictions
• Quantum transport in electron Fabry-Perot interferometers
• Resolving the Dirac Cone on the Surface of Bi2Te3 Topological Insulator Nanowires by Field-Effect Measurements
• Conditions for fully gapped topological superconductivity in topological insulator nanowires
• Quantum transport in topological surface states of Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$ nanoribbons
• Transport phenomena in helical edge states interferometers. A Green's function approach
• Magnetotransport signatures of three-dimensional topological insulator nanostructures
• Majorana modes and complex band structure of quantum wires
• Suppression of scattering in quantum confined 2D-helical Dirac systems
• Fabry-Pérot resonant vortices and magnetoconductance in topological insulator constrictions with magnetic barriers
• Current distributions in stripe Majorana junctions
• Transport in topological insulator nanowires
• Conductance oscillations and speed of chiral Majorana mode in a quantum-anomalous-Hall 2d strip