Controlling the Flow of Spin and Charge in Nanoscopic Topological Insulators

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how breaking time reversal symmetry in nanoscopic topological insulators using magnetic defects enables control over spin and charge currents, leading to nearly fully spin-polarized currents and tunable spin diodes.

Contribution

It introduces a method to control spin and charge flow in 2D topological insulators through magnetic defects, a novel approach for spintronic device design.

Findings

Creation of nearly fully spin-polarized charge currents.

Design of highly tunable spin diodes.

Control of spin and charge flow in hybrid structures.

Abstract

Controlling the flow of spin and charge currents in topological insulators (TIs) is a crucial requirement for applications in quantum computation and spin electronics. We demonstrate that such control can be established in nanoscopic two-dimensional TIs by breaking their time reversal symmetry via magnetic defects. This allows for the creation of nearly fully spin-polarized charge currents, and the design of highly tunable spin diodes. Similar effects can also be realized in mesoscale hybrid structures in which TIs interface with ferro- or antiferromagnets.