Topological insulator constrictions -- Dirac particles in a magneto-chiral box

TL;DR

This paper investigates magneto-transport in topological insulator nanowires with constrictions, revealing chiral Dirac states and non-reciprocal transport properties influenced by magnetic confinement and Landau levels.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analytical and numerical analysis of transport regimes in magneto-chiral topological insulator constrictions, highlighting the emergence of chiral states and non-reciprocal effects.

Findings

Identification of two main transport regimes based on constriction length

Presence of Dirac-particle-in-a-box states due to magnetic confinement

Prediction of strong magneto-chiral non-reciprocal transport

Abstract

We study magneto-transport through topological insulator nanowires shaped in the form of a constriction, as can be obtained by etching techniques. The magnetic field is coaxial, potentially turning the nanowire into a magneto-chiral junction. We show in a detailed analytical and numerical study that two main transport regimes emerge, depending on the central narrow region being short or long as compared to the magnetic length at the junction entrance and exit. In both cases the central region hosts Dirac-particle-in-a-box states due to magnetic confinement, whose conductance properties are strongly influenced by Landau levels at the ends of the constriction. Notably, in the low-energy regime only chiral states with a specific handedness can transport charge across the junction. Based on these properties and general symmetry considerations we argue that the shaped nanowire should exhibit strong magneto-chiral non-reciprocal transport beyond linear response. We employ a numerical tight-binding implementation of an effective 2D model on a non-homogeneous grid, capable of simulating samples of realistic sizes, and test its soundness against full simulations for scaled-down 3D topological insulator wires.