Dresden 2014 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

HL: Fachverband Halbleiterphysik

HL 79: Transport: Topological insulators II (organized by TT)

HL 79.6: Talk

Wednesday, April 2, 2014, 17:45–18:00, HSZ 204

Proximity induced perfectly conducting channel in 2D-metal topological insulator heterostructures — •Sven Essert, Viktor Krueckl, and Klaus Richter — Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Regensburg, 93040 Regensburg, Germany

Two-dimensional topological insulators have attracted much attention because of their peculiar edge-state transport features. We investigate how these properties carry over to heterostructures made of topological insulators and materials with extended states which are not topologically classifiable (metallic systems).

We find that the proximity of a topological insulator induces a perfectly conducting channel in the metal which is however not localized along the edge but spanning the whole extended state region. This resembles the perfectly conducting channels predicted in graphene nanoribbons and carbon nanotubes. However, the proximity induced channel is expected to be stable even with short-range disorder which should simplify its observation.

We propose experiments to detect this effect by conductance and shot-noise measurements and also show how the proximity of a topological insulator can be understood in terms of an effective boundary condition.