Corner junction as a probe of helical edge states

We propose and analyze interedge tunneling in a quantum spin Hall corner junction as a means to probe the helical nature of the edge states. We show that electron-electron interactions in the one-dimensional helical edge states result in Luttinger parameters for spin and charge that are intertwined,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 102; no. 7; p. 076602
Main Authors Hou, Chang-Yu, Kim, Eun-Ah, Chamon, Claudio
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 20.02.2009
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Summary:We propose and analyze interedge tunneling in a quantum spin Hall corner junction as a means to probe the helical nature of the edge states. We show that electron-electron interactions in the one-dimensional helical edge states result in Luttinger parameters for spin and charge that are intertwined, and thus rather different from those for a quantum wire with spin rotation invariance. Consequently, we find that the four-terminal conductance in a corner junction has a distinctive form that could be used as evidence for the helical nature of the edge states.
ISSN:0031-9007
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.102.076602