Local equilibrium charge and spin currents in two-dimensional topological systems

Abstract

We study the equilibrium and nonequilibrium electronic transport properties of multiprobe topological systems using a combination of the Landauer-Büttiker approach and nonequilibrium Green's functions techniques. We obtain general expressions for both nonequilibrium and equilibrium local electronic currents that, by suitable projections, allow one to compute charge, spin, valley, and orbital currents. We show that external magnetic fields give rise to equilibrium charge currents in mesoscopic system and study the latter in the quantum Hall regime. Likewise, a spin-orbit interaction leads to local equilibrium spin currents, that we analyze in the quantum spin Hall regime.

Spatial mapping of disordered 2D materials: the conductance Sudoku

“…In linear response theory, the multi-terminal Landauer-Büttiker formula for the electronic current I j at the terminal j reads [41,42,53,54]…”