  While the helical character of the edge channels responsible for charge
transport in the quantum spin Hall regime of a two-dimensional topological
insulator is by now well established, an experimental confirmation that the
transport in the edge channels is spin-polarized is still outstanding. We
report experiments on nanostructures fabricated from HgTe quantum wells with an
inverted band structure, in which a split gate technique allows us to combine
both quantum spin Hall and metallic spin Hall transport in a single device. In
these devices, the quantum spin Hall effect can be used as a spin current
injector and detector for the metallic spin Hall effect, and vice versa,
allowing for an all-electrical detection of spin polarization.
