Anomalous Electron Trajectory in Topological Insulators

We present a general theory about electron orbital motions in topological insulators. An in-plane electric field drives spin-up and spin-down electrons bending to opposite directions, and skipping orbital motions, a counterpart of the integer quantum Hall effect, are formed near the boundary of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2016-01
Main Authors: Li-kun, Shi, Shou-cheng, Zhang, Chang, Kai
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Electric fields
Electron gas
Electron orbitals
Electron spin
Electron trajectories
Electrons
Quantum Hall effect
Spin-orbit interactions
Three dimensional motion
Topological insulators
Topology
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Summary:We present a general theory about electron orbital motions in topological insulators. An in-plane electric field drives spin-up and spin-down electrons bending to opposite directions, and skipping orbital motions, a counterpart of the integer quantum Hall effect, are formed near the boundary of the sample. The accompanying Zitterbewegung can be found and controlled by tuning external electric fields. Ultrafast flipping electron spin leads to a quantum side jump in the topological insulator, and a snake-orbit motion in two-dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit interactions. This feature provides a way to control electron orbital motion by manipulating electron spin.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1109.4771