Influence of helical spin structure on the magnetoresistance of an ideal topological insulator

In an ideal topological insulator, the helical spin structure of surface electrons suppresses back-scattering and thus can enhance surface conductivity. In this study, we investigate the effect of perpendicular magnetic field on the spin structure of electrons at the Fermi energy and define a magnetic-field dependent topological enhancement factor using Boltzmann transport and calculate this factor for different disorder potentials, ranging from short-range disorder to screened Coulomb potential. Within the Boltzmann approximation, the topological enhancement factor reaches its maximum value of 4 for a short-range disorder at zero magnetic field and approaches a value of 1 at high magnetic fields. The topological enhancement factor becomes independent of the nature of the disorder potential at high magnetic fields.