Interaction-induced edge states in HgTe/CdTe quantum wells under a magnetic field

Abstract

In this paper, we study doped HgTe/CdTe quantum well with Hubbard-type interaction under perpendicular magnetic field using a lattice Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang (BHZ) model with a bulk inversion asymmetry (BIA) term. We show that the BIA term is strongly enhanced by interaction around the region when the band inversion of the topological insulator is destroyed by a magnetic field. The enhanced BIA term creates edge-like electronic states which can explain the experimentally discovered edge conductance in doped HgTe/CdTe quantum well at similar magnetic field regime.