• Open Access

Levitons in helical liquids with Rashba spin-orbit coupling probed by a superconducting contact

Flavio Ronetti, Matteo Carrega, and Maura Sassetti
Phys. Rev. Research 2, 013203 – Published 25 February 2020

Abstract

We consider transport properties of a single edge of a two-dimensional topological insulator, in presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling, driven by two external time-dependent voltages and connected to a thin superconductor. We focus on the case of a train of Lorentzian-shaped pulses, which are known to generate coherent single-electron excitations in two-dimensional electron gas, and prove that they are minimal excitations for charge transport also in helical edge states, even in the presence of spin-orbit interaction. Importantly, these properties of Lorentzian-shaped pulses can be tested computing charge noise generated by the scattering of particles at the thin superconductor. This represents a novel setup where electron quantum optics experiments with helical states can be implemented, with the superconducting contact as an effective beamsplitter. By elaborating on this configuration, we also evaluate charge noise in a collisional Hong-Ou-Mandel configuration, showing that due to the peculiar effects induced by Rashba interaction, a nonvanishing dip at zero delay appears.

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  • Received 9 November 2019
  • Accepted 17 January 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.013203

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Flavio Ronetti1, Matteo Carrega2, and Maura Sassetti1,3

  • 1Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146, Genova, Italy
  • 2NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza S. Silvestro 12, I-56127 Pisa, Italy
  • 3CNR-SPIN, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146, Genova, Italy

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Vol. 2, Iss. 1 — February - April 2020

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