Spin-orbit interaction in HgTe based wires

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The project focuses on interference phenomena in mesoscopic nanowires made from strained HgTe, being a strong 3D topological insulator (TI). On one hand we strive to get additional proof of the topological nature of the surface states following a recent theoretical proposal and, on the other hand, we plan to investigate systematically quantum mechanical interference phenomena in TI nanowires and rings. Apart from the topological nature of the charge carriers these systems are also insofar interesting as the conducting surface states, surrounding the insulating bulk of a TI, enable new cylindrical geometries for mesoscopics, hardly realizable with other materials. Topics to be addressed are (i) Aharonov-Bohm oscillations and probing phase coherence lengths in wires and rings, (ii) the search for signatures of Dirac surface states in magneto-quantum oscillations of wires and (iii) the investigation of back gated samples. The latter technique is also important for Bi-based systems which we explore in a separate work package.