Magnetic-flux tunable electronic transport through domain walls in a three-dimensional second-order topological insulator

TL;DR

This paper explores magnetic-flux controlled electronic transport in second-order topological insulators, revealing Aharonov-Bohm oscillations and Fabry-Pérot interference effects in domain wall configurations.

Contribution

It demonstrates magnetic flux tuning of topological hinge states and introduces a phenomenological model explaining observed quantum interference phenomena.

Findings

Perfect sinusoidal Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in conductance due to magnetic flux.

Constructive and destructive interference explained by $$-spin rotation of hinge states.

Detection of topological hinge states via flux-tuned conductance oscillations.

Abstract

The three-dimensional (3D) topological insulators (TIs), hosting topologically protected helical surface states, can be promoted into second-order TIs when a diagonal Zeeman term, typical of magnetic doping, is introduced. The latter hosts exotic chiral one-dimensional (1D) topological hinge states (THSs). In this paper, we investigate the electronic transport of THSs through a magnetic domain wall (DW) in a 3D TI nanowire. Due to the sign reversal of the out-of-plane magnetization across the DW, four 1D topological boundary states, residing on the edge of the DW, arise and form an enclosed loop mediating the counterpropagating THSs. By applying a uniform magnetic field parallel to the nanowire, we obtain a perfect sinusoidal Aharonov-Bohm oscillation in the two-terminal conductance $G$, formulated by $G=\frac{e^2}{2h} \left[ 1- \cos(\pi \Phi/\Phi_0) \right]$, with $\Phi$ the magnetic flux through the DW and $\Phi_0 = h/2e$ the flux quantum. Applying a phenomenological scattering matrix approach, we explain this novel Aharonov-Bohm oscillation perfectly, and attribute the constructive (destructive) interference of transmission at $\Phi = \Phi_0$ (0) to the $\pi$-spin rotation of the THSs traveling through the DW. Extending our study to a double-DW junction, where the central region has antiparallel magnetization to the leads, we observe Fabry-P{\'e}rot oscillations, in which the conductance minima are tuned by the magnetic flux. Our findings open a new avenue for finely controlling the quantum transport of THSs in magnetic systems using magnetic flux, and provide a faithful way for detecting THSs in experiments.