Dresden 2017 – scientific programme

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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen

TT 33: Transport: Majorana Fermions

TT 33.7: Talk

Tuesday, March 21, 2017, 15:30–15:45, HSZ 204

Helical gaps in interacting Rashba wires at low electron densities — •Thomas Schmidt and Christopher Pedder — Physics and Materials Science Research Unit, University of Luxembourg, L-1511 Luxembourg

Rashba spin-orbit coupling and a magnetic field perpendicular to the Rashba axis have been predicted to open a partial gap (``helical gap'') in the energy spectrum of noninteracting or weakly interacting one-dimensional quantum wires. By comparing kinetic energy and Coulomb energy we show that this gap opening typically occurs at low electron densities where the Coulomb energy dominates. To address this strongly correlated limit, we investigate 1D and quasi-1D Rashba wires using Wigner crystal theory. We find that in the 1D case, the helical gap exists even in the limit of strong interactions but its dependence on electron density differs significantly from the weakly interacting case. In the quasi-1D case, we find that a helical gap can open even without applied magnetic field.