Optical manipulation of edge-state transport in HgTe quantum wells in the quantum Hall regime

We investigate an effective low-energy theory of HgTe quantum wells near their mass inversion thickness in a perpendicular magnetic field. By comparison of the effective band structure with a more elaborated and well-established model, the parameter regime and the validity of the effective model are scrutinized. Optical transitions in HgTe quantum wells are analyzed. We find selection rules which we functionalize to optically manipulate edge-state transport. Qualitatively, our findings equally apply to optical edge current manipulation in graphene.