Magnetism in a new structural family of iridates

ORAL

Abstract

The physics of Mott insulators underlies diverse phenomena ranging from high temperature superconductivity to exotic magnetism. Although both the electron spin and the local orbitals play a key role in these phenomena, in most systems these are connected only indirectly --- via Pauli exclusion --- since the spin-orbit interaction is relatively weak. Iridium-based oxides (iridates) depart from this expectation, since the spin-orbit coupling dominates over other interactions, such that the Mott physics obtains a strong orbital character. In some cases this is thought to generate strongly spin-anisotropic exchange. Here we report a new family of iridates whose magnetic character shows that this material has highly spin-anisotropic interactions, a key ingredient of the exotic possibilities associated with these compounds.

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Authors

  • James Analytis

    • University of California Berkeley

  • Tess Smidt

    • Univ of California - Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
    • University of California Berkeley

  • Ross McDonald

    • National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos NM 87545
    • LANL
    • Los Alamos National Lab
    • National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Kim Modic

    • Los Alamos Natl Lab
    • Los Alamos National Lab

  • Itamar Kimchi

    • University of California, Berkeley
    • University of California Berkeley

  • Ashvin Vishwanath

    • University of California, Berkeley
    • Univ of California - Berkeley
    • UC Berkeley, LBNL
    • UC Berkeley
    • University of California Berkeley

  • Radu Coldea

    • University of Oxford
    • University of Oxford, UK
    • Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom

  • Alun Biffin

    • University of Oxford, UK

  • S.K. Choi

    • University of Oxford
    • University of Oxford, UK

  • Julia Chan

    • University of Texas at Dallas

  • Pilanda Watkins-Curry

    • Louisiana State University