The persistent charge and spin currents in topological insulator Bi2Se3 nanowires

We investigate theoretically the surface states of three-dimensional topological insulator cylinder nanowires analytically and numerically. In contrast to the conventional semiconductor cylinder nanowires, these surface states exhibit unique massless Dirac dispersion and interesting transport properties. We find that the persistent charge current and persistent spin current, i.e., the Aharonov-Bohm oscillation, can be induced by the driven magnetic flux. The amplitude of persistent charge current shows an oscillating behavior with increasing the electron density. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3658853]