Spin textures of strongly correlated spin Hall quantum dots

TL;DR

This paper investigates how strong electron interactions in a quantum spin Hall quantum dot lead to complex spin textures, revealing a transition from liquid-like correlations to a highly correlated spin pattern similar to a Wigner molecule.

Contribution

It demonstrates the emergence of correlated spin textures in quantum spin Hall quantum dots due to strong interactions, a novel insight into spin ordering in such systems.

Findings

Strong interactions induce a highly correlated spin ground state.

Transition from liquid-like to spin-ordered states with increasing interactions.

Spin textures resemble one-dimensional Wigner molecules.

Abstract

We study the spin ordering of a quantum dot defined via magnetic barriers in an interacting quantum spin Hall edge. The spin-resolved density-density correlation functions are computed. We show that strong electron interactions induce a ground state with a highly correlated spin pattern. The crossover from the liquid-type correlations at weak interactions to the ground state spin texture found at strong interactions parallels the formation of a one-dimensional Wigner molecule in an ordinary strongly interacting quantum dot.