Nonlocal transport in a hybrid two-dimensional topological insulator

Abstract

We study nonlocal resistance in an H-shaped two-dimensional HgTe/CdTe quantum well consisting of an injector and a detector, both of which can be tuned in the quantum spin Hall or metallic spin Hall regime. Because of strong spin-orbit interaction, there always exists the spin Hall effect and nonlocal resistance in the HgTe/CdTe quantum well. We find that when both the detector and the injector are in the quantum spin Hall regime, the nonlocal resistance is quantized at $0.25\frac{h}{{e}^{2}}$, which is robust against weak disorder scattering and small magnetic field. When the detector or injector is beyond this regime, the nonlocal resistance decreases rapidly and will be strongly suppressed by disorder and magnetic field. In the presence of a strong magnetic field, the quantum spin Hall regime will be switched into the quantum Hall regime, and the nonlocal resistance will disappear. The nonlocal signal and its various manifestations in different hybrid regimes originate from the special band structure of the HgTe/CdTe quantum well, and they can be considered as the fingerprint of the helical quantum spin Hall edge states in a two-dimensional topological insulator.