Mechanism of basal-plane antiferromagnetism in the spin-orbit driven iridate Ba2Iro4

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Vamshi M. Katukuri - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Viktor Yushankhai - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Author)
  • Liudmila Siurakshina - , Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Max-Planck-Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (Author)
  • Jeroen Van Den Brink - , Chair of Solid State Theory, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Liviu Hozoi - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Ioannis Rousochatzakis - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden, Max-Planck-Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (Author)

Abstract

By ab initio many-body quantum chemistry calculations, we determine the strength of the symmetric anisotropy in the 5d5 j ≈ 1/2 layered material Ba2IrO4. While the calculated anisotropic couplings come out in the range of a few meV, orders of magnitude stronger than in analogous 3d transition-metal compounds, the Heisenberg superexchange still defines the largest energy scale. The ab initio results reveal that individual layers of Ba2IrO4 provide a close realization of the quantum spin-1/2 Heisenberg-compass model on the square lattice. We show that the experimentally observed basal-plane antiferromagnetism can be accounted for by including additional interlayer interactions and the associated order-by-disorder quantum-mechanical effects, in analogy to undoped layered cuprates.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number021051
JournalPhysical Review X
Volume4
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 2014
Peer-reviewedYes

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Keywords

  • Condensed matter physics, Magnetism, Strongly correlated materials