Interplay between Rashba interaction and electromagnetic field in the edge states of a two-dimensional topological insulator

Abstract

The author investigates in a nonperturbative way the effects of Rashba interaction and electromagnetic field on the edge states of a two-dimensional topological insulator. He shows that the electron dynamics is equivalent to a problem of massless Dirac fermions propagating with an inhomogeneous velocity, unveiling interesting consequences. The Rashba coupling always enhances the electron velocity and, despite the inelastic and time-reversal breaking processes induced by the electromagnetic field, no backscattering occurs without interaction. Furthermore, when the photoexcitation occurs far from the Rashba region, the latter effectively acts as a ``superluminal gate'', boosting the photoexcited wavepacket outside the light-cone determined by the bare Fermi velocity ${v}_{F}$. In contrast, for an electric pulse overlapping the Rashba region, the emerging wave packets are squeezed in a manner that depends on the overlap area. The author also discusses the effects of electron-electron interaction, for both intraspin and interspin density-density coupling. The results suggest that Rashba interaction, often considered as an unwanted disorder effect, may be exploited to tailor the shape and the propagation time of photoexcited spin-polarized wave packets.