Spin Hall Insulator Research Articles

Topological insulators on a Mobius strip

We study the two dimensional Chern insulator and spin Hall insulator on a non-orientable Riemann surface, the Mobius strip, where the usual bandstructure topological invariant is not defined. We show that while the flow pattern of edge currents can detect the twist of the Mobius strip in the case of Chern insulator, it can not do so in spin Hall insulator.

Finite Size Effects on Helical Edge States in a Quantum Spin-Hall System

The hallmark of the spin-Hall insulator is the presence of gapless edge states of different spins moving in opposite directions. Through analytical solutions in a model calculation for a strip of finite width, we find that edge states on the two sides can couple together to produce a gap in the spectrum, destroying the quantum spin-Hall effect. The application of a magnetic field can however modify and even remove the gap by shifting the momenta of the edge states relative to each other.

Spin Current and Accumulation Generated by the Spin Hall Insulator

Spin current and accumulation generated by the electric field in a spin Hall insulator (SHI) are investigated theoretically in terms of the Keldysh formalism. In contrast to the quantum Hall system, there are no massless edge modes in general. The spin current is generated near the contacts to the electrodes by the hybridization between the metallic states and the conduction/valence bands of the SHI, but is truncated by the sink and source of the spin. However, one can produce the spin current flowing out to the conductors, which is attached to the SHI, and also the spin accumulation there, due to the leakage charge current which breaks the time-reversal symmetry.