Electron tunneling through a single magnetic barrier in HgTe topological insulator

Abstract

Electron tunneling through a single magnetic barrier in a HgTe topological insulator has been theoretically investigated. We find that the perpendicular magnetic field would not lead to spin-flip of the edge states due to the conservation of the angular moment. By tuning the magnetic field and Fermi energy, the edge channels can be transited from switch-on states to switch-off states and the current can be transmitted from unpolarized states to totally spin polarized states. These features offer us and efficient way to control the topological edge state transport, and pave a way to construct the nanoelectronic devices utilizing the topological edge states.