Analytic and numeric computation of edge states and conductivity of a Kane-Mele nanoribbon

Abstract

We compute analytic expressions for the edge states in a zigzag Kane-Mele nanoribbon (KMNR) by solving the eigenvalue equations in presence of intrinsic and Rashba spin-orbit couplings. Owing to the P-T symmetry of the Hamiltonian the edge states are protected by topological invariance and hence are found to be robust. We have done a systematic study for each of the above cases, for example, a pristine graphene, graphene with an intrinsic spin-orbit coupling, graphene with a Rashba spin-orbit coupling, a Kane-Mele nanoribbon and supported our results on the robustness of the edge states by analytic computation of the electronic probability amplitudes, the local density of states (LDOS), band structures and the conductance spectra.