title: Corner junction as a probe of helical edge states.
abstract: We propose and analyze interedge tunneling in a quantum spin Hall corner junction as a means to probe the helical nature of the edge states. We show that electron-electron interactions in the one-dimensional helical edge states result in Luttinger parameters for spin and charge that are intertwined, and thus rather different from those for a quantum wire with spin rotation invariance. Consequently, we find that the four-terminal conductance in a corner junction has a distinctive form that could be used as evidence for the helical nature of the edge states.
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Chang-Yu
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Eun-Ah
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chamon