Inelastic Electron Backscattering in a Generic Helical Edge Channel

2012/01/31 by Thomas L. Schmidt, Stephan Rachel, Felix von Oppen +1 · 13 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum many-body systems #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.108.156402

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 156402 (2012) · 4+ pages, 3 figures, published version

openalex publication_date 2012/04/11 · arxiv created 2012/05/04 · arxiv updated 2012/05/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

We evaluate the low-temperature conductance of a weakly interacting one-dimensional helical liquid without axial spin symmetry. The lack of that symmetry allows for inelastic backscattering of a single electron, accompanied by forward scattering of another. This joint effect of weak interactions and potential scattering off impurities results in a temperature-dependent deviation from the quantized conductance, δG ∝ T4. In addition, δG is sensitive to the position of the Fermi level. We determine numerically the parameters entering our generic model for the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang Hamiltonian of a HgTe/CdTe quantum well in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling.

Citations

• Topological insulators and superconductors
• Topological Insulators
• The Quantum Spin Hall Effect: Theory and Experiment

Cited by

• Backscattering between helical edge states via dynamic nuclear polarization
• Low-temperature conductivity of weakly interacting quantum spin Hall edges in strained-layer InAs/GaInSb
• Shot noise in strongly correlated double quantum spin Hall edges
• Quantum phase transitions of topological insulators without gap closing
• Marginally localized edges of time-reversal symmetric topological superconductors
• Formation and detection of Majorana modes in quantum spin Hall trenches
• Fundamental limits to helical edge conductivity due to spin-phonon scattering
• Stability of Time-Reversal Symmetry Protected Topological Phases
• Emergent quantum Hall effects below 50 mT in a two-dimensional topological insulator
• Dynamic impurities in two-dimensional topological-insulator edge states
• Images of Edge Current inInAs/GaSbQuantum Wells
• Helical edge states coupled to a spin bath: Current-induced magnetization
• Conductance signatures of odd-frequency superconductivity in quantum spin Hall systems using a quantum point contact

Related

• Conductance of a Helical Edge Liquid Coupled to a Magnetic Impurity
• A non-magnetic mechanism of backscattering in helical edge states
• Non-universal conductance in quasi-helical quantum wires
• Transport through short quantum wires
• Competing Effects of Interactions and Spin-Orbit Coupling in a Quantum Wire