Lecturer: Dr. Roni Ilan Affiliation: University of California, Berkeley Abstract: Three dimensional topological insulators (3DTI) are a vastly studied symmetry protected topological phase. Its surface state encloses a three dimensional bulk material and forms a two dimensional Dirac metal with no boundary. In this talk I will describe how this is significant in using topological insulator nano wires and films in order to generate, manipulate, and detect topological effects unique to 3DTI in transport. I will discuss our recent theoretical works on interfaces and junctions such as a p-n junction, a superconducting - normal (SN) interface, and Josephson Junctions on 3DTI nano wires, and argue that these setups can be used to address two outstanding challenges: the detection of spin-momentum locking and the detection of topological superconductivity in transport experiments. In particular, I will argue that a p-n junction in the quantum Hall regime forms a Mach-Zehnder interferometer based on spin- momentum locking, functioning as a spin-FET with the advantage of separating spin polarized currents on output. I will also discuss how SN and Josephson junctions can be used in order to detect topological superconductivity in one dimension. For the NS junction, the conductance developed a plateau at low chemical potentials, and I will explain how in the presence of a quantizing field such a junction can be mapped onto a Majorana interferometer. Finally I will talk about the practical aspects of these proposed devices, their experimental feasibility, and their robustness to disorder and finite temperatures. ‏האירוע הזה כולל שיחת וידאו ב-Google Hangouts. הצטרף: https://hangouts.google.com/hangouts/_/mail.huji.ac.il/tba-dr-roni?hceid...