Noise and current correlations in tunnel junctions of quantum spin Hall edge states

Abstract

The edge channels of two-dimensional topological systems are protected from elastic reflection and are noiseless at low temperature. Yet, noise and cross-correlations can be induced when electron waves partly transmit to the opposite edge via tunneling through a constriction. In particular, in a quantum spin Hall (QSH) system tunnelling occurs via both spin-preserving ($p$) and spin-flipping ($f$) processes, each fulfilling time-reversal symmetry. We investigate the current correlations of a four-terminal QSH setup in the presence of a tunneling region, both at equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium. We find that, although $p$ and $f$ processes do not commute and the generic current correlation depends on both, under appropriate conditions a direct detection of two types of partition noise is possible. In particular, while the spin-preserving partitioning can be probed for any arbitrary tunnel junction with a specific configuration of terminal biases, the spin-flipping partitioning can be directly detected only under suitably designed setups and conditions. We describe two setups where these conditions can be fulfilled, and both types of partitioning can be detected and controlled.