Transition from insulating to metallic phase induced by in-plane magnetic field in HgTe quantum wells

Abstract

We report transport measurements in HgTe-based quantum wells with well width of 8 nm, corresponding to quantum spin Hall state, subject to in-plane magnetic field. In the absence of the magnetic field the local and nonlocal resistances behave very similar, which confirms the edge state transport in our system. In the magnetic field, we observe a monotonic decrease of the resistance with saturation of local resistance, while nonlocal resistance disappears completely, independent of the gate voltage. We believe that these evidences of metallic behavior indicate a transition to a gapless two-dimensional phase, according to theoretical predictions. The influence of disorder on resistivity properties of HgTe quantum wells under in-plane magnetic field is discussed.