Spin Berry phase in a helical edge state: Sz nonconservation and transport signatures

Abstract

Topological protection of edge state in quantum spin Hall systems relies only on time-reversal symmetry. Hence, S z conservation on the edge can be relaxed which can have an interferometric manifestation in terms of spin Berry phase. Primarily it could lead to the generation of spin Berry phase arising from a closed loop dynamics of electrons. Our work provides a minimal framework to generate and detect these effects by employing both spin-unpolarized and spin-polarized leads. We show that spin-polarized leads could lead to resonances or anti-resonances in the two-terminal conductance of the interferometer. We further show that the positions of these anti-resonances (as a function of energy of the incident electron) get shifted owing to the presence of spin Berry phase. Finally, we present simulations of a device setup using KWANTpackage which put our theoretical predictions on firm footing.