2012/07/09 by Anders Mathias Lunde, Gloria Platero
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Condensed matter physics #Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution #Graphene research and applications #Insulator (electricity) #Magnetic field #Magnetization #Optoelectronics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Scattering #Spin (aerodynamics) #Spin current #Spin-flip #Spins #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.86.035112
published as Phys. Rev. B 86, 035112 (2012) · 8 pages, 3 figures. Chosen for "Editors' Suggestion" in Physical Review B
openalex publication_date 2012/07/09 · arxiv created 2012/07/11 · arxiv updated 2012/07/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study current carrying helical edge states in a two-dimensional topological insulator coupled to an environment of localized spins, i.e., a spin bath. The localized spins mediate elastic spin-flip scattering between the helical edge states, and we show how this induces a spin-bath magnetization for a finite current through the edge states. The magnetization appears near the boundaries of the topological insulator, while the bulk remains unmagnetized, and it reaches its maximal value in the high bias regime. Furthermore, the helical edge states remain ballistic in steady state, if no additional spin-flip mechanisms for the localized spins are present. However, we demonstrate that if such mechanisms are allowed, then these will induce a finite current decrease from the ballistic value.