Conductance fluctuations in disordered 2D topological insulator wires: From quantum spin-Hall to ordinary quantum phases

Abstract: Impurities and defects are ubiquitous in topological insulators (TIs) and thus understanding the effects of disorder on electronic transport is important. We calculate the distribution of the random conductance fluctuations $P(G)$ of disordered 2D TI wires modeled by the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang (BHZ) Hamiltonian with realistic parameters. As we show, the disorder drives the TIs into different regimes: metal (M), quantum spin-Hall insulator (QSHI), and ordinary insulator (OI). By varying the disorder strength and Fermi energy, we calculate analytically and numerically $P(G)$ across the entire phase diagram. The conductance fluctuations follow the statistics of the unitary universality class $\beta=2$. At strong disorder and high energy, however, the size of the fluctutations $\delta G$ reaches the universal value of the orthogonal symmetry class ($\beta=1$). At the QSHI-M and QSHI-OI crossovers, the interplay between edge and bulk states plays a key role in the statistical properties of the conductance.