We report transport studies on a three dimensional, 70 nm thick HgTe layer, which is strained by epitaxial growth on a CdTe substrate. The strain induces a band gap in the otherwise semi-metallic HgTe, which thus becomes a three dimensional topologic
al insulator. Contributions from residual bulk carriers to the transport properties of the gapped HgTe layer are negligible at mK temperatures. As a result, the sample exhibits a quantized Hall effect that results from the 2D single cone Dirac-like topological surface states.
We report the first electrical manipulation and detection of the mesoscopic intrinsic spin-Hall effect (ISHE) in semiconductors through non-local electrical measurement in nano-scale H-shaped structures built on high mobility HgTe/HgCdTe quantum well
s. By controlling the strength of the spin-orbit splittings and the n-type to p-type transition by a top-gate, we observe a large non-local resistance signal due to the ISHE in the p-regime, of the order of kOhms, which is several orders of magnitude larger than in metals. In the n-regime, as predicted by theory, the signal is at least an order of magnitude smaller. We verify our experimental observation by quantum transport calculations which show quantitative agreement with the experiments.
