Spin Hall effect at interfaces between HgTe/CdTe quantum wells and metals

We study the spin-dependent transmission through interfaces between a HgTe/CdTe quantum well (QW) and a metal - both for the normal metal and the superconducting case. Interestingly, we discover a new type of spin Hall effect at these interfaces that happens to exist even in the absence of structure and bulk inversion asymmetry within each subsystem (i.e. the QW and the metal). Thus, this is a pure boundary spin Hall effect which can be directly related to the existence of exponentially localized edge states at the interface. We demonstrate how this effect can be measured and functionalized for an all-electric spin injection into normal metal leads.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Interplay of bulk and edge states in transport of two-dimensional topological insulators

We study transport in two-terminal metal/quantum spin-Hall insulator (QSHI)/metal junctions. We show that the conductance signals originating from the bulk and the edge contributions are not additive. While for a long junction the transport is determined by the edge states contribution, for a short junction, the conductance signal is built from both bulk and edge states in the ratio which depends on the width of the sample. Further, in the topological insulator regime the conductance for short junctions shows a non-monotonic behavior as a function of the sample length. Surprisingly this non-monotonic behavior of conductance can be traced to the formation of an effectively propagating solution which is robust against scalar disorder. Our predictions should be experimentally verifiable in HgTe QWs and Bi$_2$Se$_3$ thin films.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Signatures of topology in ballistic bulk transport of HgTe quantum wells

We calculate bulk transport properties of two-dimensional topological insulators based on HgTe quantum wells in the ballistic regime. Interestingly, we find that the conductance and the shot noise are distinctively different for the so-called normal regime (the topologically trivial case) and the so-called inverted regime (the topologically non-trivial case). Thus, it is possible to verify the topological order of a two-dimensional topological insulator not only via observable edge properties but also via observable bulk properties. This is important because we show that under certain conditions the bulk contribution can dominate the edge contribution which makes it essential to fully understand the former for the interpretation of future experiments in clean samples.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Noiseless manipulation of helical edge state transport by a quantum magnet

The current through a helical edge state of a quantum spin Hall insulator may be fully transmitted through a magnetically gapped region due to a combination of spin-transfer torque and spin pumping [Meng et al., Phys. Rev. B 90, 205403 (2014)]. Using a scattering approach, we here argue that in such a system the current is effectively carried by electrons with energies below the magnet- induced gap and well below the Fermi energy. This has striking consequences, such as the absence of shot noise, an exponential suppression of thermal noise, and an obstruction of thermal transport. For two helical edges covered by the same quantum magnet, the device can act as a robust noiseless current splitter