Giant magnetoresistance and perfect spin filter in silicene, germanene, and stanene

Abstract

Silicene, germanene and stanene are two-dimensional topological insulators exhibiting helical edge states. We investigate global and local manipulations at the edges by exposing them to (i) a charge-density-wave order, (ii) a superconductor, (iii) an out-of-plane antiferromagnetic, and (iv) an in-plane antiferromagnetic field. We show that these perturbations affect the helical edge states in a different fashion. As a consequence one can realize quantum spin-Hall effect without edge states. In addition, these edge manipulations lead to very promising applications: a giant magnetoresistance and a perfect spin filter. We also investigate the effect of manipulations on a very few edge-sites of a topological insulator nanodisk.

6 pages, 6 figures; v2: manuscript slightly extended