Localization and entanglement characterization of edge states in HgTe quantum wells in a finite strip geometry

Quantum information measures are proposed to analyze the structure of near-gap electronic states in HgTe quantum wells in a strip geometry [Formula: see text] of finite width L. This allows us to establish criteria for distinguishing edge from bulk states in the topological insulator phase, including the transition region and cutoff of the wave number [Formula: see text] where edge states degenerate with bulk states. Qualitative and quantitative information on the near-gap Hamiltonian eigenstates, obtained by tight-binding calculations, is extracted from localization measures, like the inverse participation ratio (IPR), entanglement entropies of the reduced density matrix (RDM) to the spin sector – measuring quantum correlations due to the spin–orbit coupling (SOC) – and from correlation functions for a y-space partition. The analysis of IPR and entanglement entropies in terms of spin, wave number [Formula: see text] and position y, evidences a spin polarization structure and spatial confinement of near-gap wave functions at the boundaries [Formula: see text] and low [Formula: see text], as correspond to helical edge states. IPR localization measures provide momentum [Formula: see text] cutoffs from which near-gap states are no longer localized at the boundaries of the sample and become part of the bulk. Below this [Formula: see text]-point cutoff, the entanglement entropy and the spin probabilities of the RDM also capture the spin polarization structure of edge states and exhibit a higher variability compared to the relatively low entropy of the bulk state region. For a real-space partition, the edge-state region in momentum space exhibits lower correlation modulus, but higher correlation arguments, than the bulk-state region.