Anomalous Spin Response and Virtual-Carrier-Mediated Magnetism in a Topological Insulator

We present a comprehensive theoretical study of the static spin response in HgTe quantum wells, revealing distinctive behavior for the topologically nontrivial inverted structure. Most strikingly, the q=0 (long-wavelength) spin susceptibility of the undoped topological-insulator system is constant a...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: T. Kernreiter, M. Governale, U. Zülicke, E. M. Hankiewicz
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: American Physical Society 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/a0d2ef8d7ddf4ce6bf42a474996209b0
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:We present a comprehensive theoretical study of the static spin response in HgTe quantum wells, revealing distinctive behavior for the topologically nontrivial inverted structure. Most strikingly, the q=0 (long-wavelength) spin susceptibility of the undoped topological-insulator system is constant and equal to the value found for the gapless Dirac-like structure, whereas the same quantity shows the typical decrease with increasing band gap in the normal-insulator regime. We discuss ramifications for the ordering of localized magnetic moments present in the quantum well, both in the insulating and electron-doped situations. The spin response of edge states is also considered, and we extract effective Landé g factors for the bulk and edge electrons. The variety of counterintuitive spin-response properties revealed in our study arises from the system’s versatility in accessing situations where the charge-carrier dynamics can be governed by ordinary Schrödinger-type physics; it mimics the behavior of chiral Dirac fermions or reflects the material’s symmetry-protected topological order.