Theory of magnetism and metal-insulator transition in layered perovskite iridates

TL;DR

This paper explores the metal-insulator transition and magnetic properties in layered iridates, revealing how dimensionality and spin-orbit coupling influence electronic states and magnetic orderings, challenging the Mott insulator interpretation.

Contribution

It constructs tight-binding and Hubbard models for layered iridates, analyzing magnetic phases and showing magnetic ordering alone does not confirm Mott physics.

Findings

Different magnetic insulators identified for Sr2IrO4, Sr3Ir2O7, and SrIrO3.

Magnetic ordering patterns are consistent in weak and strong coupling regimes.

Magnetic ordering is insufficient to establish Mott insulating behavior.

Abstract

We investigate the metal-insulator transition in the layered Ruddelsden Popper series of strontium iridates Srn+1IrnO3n+1. Tight-binding models of t2g orbitals for n = 1, 2, and infinity are constructed, and changes in band dispersion due to dimensionality and spin-orbit coupling are presented. Identifying the states near the Fermi level to be predominantly Jeff = 1/2, we use an effective Hubbard model to study the effect of correlations. Transitions from a metallic state to various magnetically ordered states at different critical interactions are obtained. A canted antiferromagnetic insulator is found for Sr2IrO4, a c-axis collinear antiferromagnetic insulator for Sr3Ir2O7, and non-coplanar canted antiferromagnetic insulator via magnetic metal for SrIrO3. We derive the strong-coupling spin-model and compare the magnetic ordering patterns obtained in the weak and strong coupling limits. We find that they are identical, indicating that magnetic ordering is not sufficient to justify Mott physics in this series of iridates.