Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW B
Volume 85, Issue 20, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.85.205319
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Funding
- Polish Ministry of Science [0060/H03/2010/70]
- EC network SemiSpinNet [PITN-GA-2008-215368]
- EU FunDMS of the European Research Council
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We investigate theoretically the PbTe/Pb1-xSnxTe heterostructure grown in the [111] direction, specifically a quantum wall (potential step of width d) of PbTe embedded in Pb1-xSnxTe. For x large enough to lead to band inversion and for large d, there are well-known gapless interface states associated with four L valleys. We show that for d approximate to 10 nm, the three pairs of states from oblique valleys strongly couple and become gapped with a gap similar to 10 meV. On the other hand, the interface states from the [111] valley are essentially uncoupled, and they retain their helical character, remaining analogous to states at surfaces of thin layers of three-dimensional topological insulators. This opens up a possibility of studying the physics of two-dimensional helical Dirac fermions in heterostuctures of already widely studied IV-VI semiconductors.
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