Magnetically confined states and transport property on the surface of a topological insulator

We study the electronic structure and transport for a quasi-one-dimensional channel constructed via two ferromagnetic (FM) stripes on the surface of a three-dimensional (3D) topological insulator (TI) in parallel (P) or antiparallel (AP) magnetization configuration along the vertical z$z$-direction. We demonstrate that the confined states which are localized inside the channel always exist due to the magnetic potential confinement. Interestingly, the channel is metallic because of the existence of a topologically protected gapless chiral edge mode in the case of AP configuration. The asymmetric spatial-distribution of both electron probability density and in-plane spin polarization for the confined states implies that in the case of P configuration there exists a chiral state near the channel edge owing to the Hamiltonian inversion symmetry broken in real space, while the distributions in AP case are always symmetry since the inversion symmetry is still kept. Furthermore, the transmission probability and the spatial-dependent distributions of charge and spin along a narrow–wide–narrow channel on the surface with P configuration confinement are also calculated, from which a fully in-plane spin-polarized electron output is achieved. Along with the mathematical analysis we provide an intuitive, topological understanding of these effects.