摘要
We review the recent experimental progress towards observing quantum spin Hall effect in inverted InAs/GaSb quantum wells （QWs）. Low temperature transport measurements in the hybridization gap show bulk conductivity of a non-trivial origin, while the length and width dependence of con- ductance in this regime show strong evidence for the existence of helical edge modes proposed by Liu et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett., 2008, 100： 236601]. Surprisingly, edge modes persist in spite of compa- rable bulk conduction and show only weak dependence on magnetic field. We elucidate that seeming independence of edge on bulk transport comes due to the disparity in Fermi-wave vectors between the bulk and the edge, leading to a total internal reflection of the edge modes.
We review the recent experimental progress towards observing quantum spin Hall effect in inverted InAs/GaSb quantum wells （QWs）. Low temperature transport measurements in the hybridization gap show bulk conductivity of a non-trivial origin, while the length and width dependence of con- ductance in this regime show strong evidence for the existence of helical edge modes proposed by Liu et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett., 2008, 100： 236601]. Surprisingly, edge modes persist in spite of compa- rable bulk conduction and show only weak dependence on magnetic field. We elucidate that seeming independence of edge on bulk transport comes due to the disparity in Fermi-wave vectors between the bulk and the edge, leading to a total internal reflection of the edge modes.
