Spin polarization of the quantum spin Hall edge states
  While the helical character of the edge channels responsible for charge transport in the quantum spin Hall regime of a two-dimensional topological insulator is by now well established, an experimental confirmation that the transport in the edge channels is spin-polarized is still outstanding. We report experiments on nanostructures fabricated from HgTe quantum wells with an inverted band structure, in which a split gate technique allows us to combine both quantum spin Hall and metallic spin Hall transport in a single device. In these devices, the quantum spin Hall effect can be used as a spin current injector and detector for the metallic spin Hall effect, and vice versa, allowing for an all-electrical detection of spin polarization. 
Christoph Br\"une, Andreas Roth, Hartmut Buhmann, Ewelina M.   Hankiewicz, Laurens W. Molenkamp, Joseph Maciejko, Xiao-Liang...
cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.mtrl-sci