Tuesday, November 27, 2012

1211.5855 (Yasuyuki Hirata et al.)

Complex Orbital State Stabilized by Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling in a
Metallic Iridium Oxide IrO$_{2}$
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Yasuyuki Hirata, Kenya Ohgushi, Jun-ichi Yamaura, Hiroyuki Ohsumi, Soshi Takeshita, Masaki Takata, Takahisa Arima
Resonant x-ray diffraction experiments were performed for the metallic iridium oxide IrO$_{2}$. We observed anisotropic tensor of susceptibility (ATS) scattering, the spectrum of which shows a sharp contrast between the $L_{3}$ and $L_{2}$ edges. At the $L_{3}$ edge, resonance excitations were clearly observed from the core 2$p$ orbitals to both the 5$d$ $t_{2g}$ and $e_{g}$ orbitals. In contrast, the resonance mode associated with 5$d$ $t_{2g}$ orbitals was indiscernible at the $L_{2}$ edge. This contrasting behavior indicates that Ir 5$d$ $t_{2g}$ orbitals are fairly close to the $J_{\rm eff}$ = 1/2 state due to the strong spin--orbit coupling in 5$d$ transition metal ions, as in the Mott insulator Sr$_{2}$IrO$_{4}$. Our results clearly demonstrate that ATS scattering is a useful probe for investigating complex orbital states in a metallic state. Such states induce novel phenomena such as the spin Hall effect.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.5855

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