Spin-polarized scanning-tunneling probe for helical luttinger liquids

Abstract

We propose a three-terminal spin-polarized STM setup for probing the helical nature of the Luttinger liquid edge state that appears in the quantum spin Hall system. We show that the three-terminal tunneling conductance depends on the angle (θ) between the magnetization direction of the tip and the local orientation of the electron spin on the edge while the two terminal conductance is independent of this angle. We demonstrate that chiral injection of an electron into the helical Luttinger liquid (when θ is zero or π) is associated with fractionalization of the spin of the injected electron in addition to the fractionalization of its charge. We also point out a spin current amplification effect induced by the spin fractionalization.