Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen

TT 38: Poster Session Transport

TT 38.41: Poster

Mittwoch, 16. März 2011, 14:00–18:00, P3

Spin Transport in HgTe Quantum Wells — •Rolf W. Reinthaler, Dietrich G. Rothe, and Ewelina M. Hankiewicz — Institut für Theoretische Physik und Astrophysik, Universität Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg, Germany

We study the spin transport in the topological insulators HgTe quantum wells which are described within an effective four band model (conduction/heavy hole bands) including space inversion breaking terms [1]. In the ballistic regime, we find that the spin transport is governed by the Rashba term, i.e. the spin signal precesses with the electric field perpendicular to the plane of the quantum well. However, the precession length is modified due to the Dirac-like structure of the Hamiltonian. In particular, we find a large background signal near the topological insulator state as well as an enhanced spin rotation. We attribute these effects to the properties of the Hamiltonian and the confinement potential of the two-dimensional topological insulator.

We acknowledge the financial support of the German DFG grant HA 5893/1-1.
D. G. Rothe, R. W. Reinthaler, C.-X. Liu, L. W. Molenkamp, S.-C. Zhang, and E. M. Hankiewicz, New Journal of Physics 12 065012 (2010).