Tunable quantum spin Hall effect in double quantum wells

The field of topological insulators (TIs) is rapidly growing. Concerning possible applications, the search for materials with an easily controllable TI phase is a key issue. The quantum spin Hall effect, characterized by a single pair of helical edge modes protected by time-reversal symmetry, has been demonstrated in HgTe-based quantum wells (QWs) with an inverted bandgap. We analyze the topological properties of a generically coupled HgTe-based double QW (DQW) and show how in such a system a TI phase can be driven by an inter-layer bias voltage, even when the individual layers are non-inverted. We argue, that this system allows for similar (layer-)pseudospin based physics as in bilayer graphene but with the crucial absence of a valley degeneracy.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, extended version (accepted Phys. Rev. B

Z2\mathbb Z_2~Green's function topology of Majorana wires

We represent the $\mathbb Z_2$~topological invariant characterizing a one dimensional topological superconductor using a Wess-Zumino-Witten dimensional extension. The invariant is formulated in terms of the single particle Green's function which allows to classify interacting systems. Employing a recently proposed generalized Berry curvature method, the topological invariant is represented independent of the extra dimension requiring only the single particle Green's function at zero frequency of the interacting system. Furthermore, a modified twisted boundary conditions approach is used to rigorously define the topological invariant for disordered interacting systems.Comment: final versio