Theoretical Study of Coulomb Correlations and Spin-Orbit Coupling in SrIrO3

TL;DR

This study uses density functional theory to explore how spin-orbit coupling and electron correlations influence the electronic and magnetic properties of SrIrO3, revealing its nature as a bad metal with no magnetic order.

Contribution

It provides a detailed theoretical analysis of SrIrO3, highlighting the dominant role of spin-orbit interactions in its electronic behavior and contrasting it with related iridates.

Findings

SrIrO3 is a bad metal with no long-range magnetic order.

Spin-orbit interactions significantly increase resistivity.

Electron-electron correlations affect electronic structure and magnetism.

Abstract

Given that energy scales associated with crystal field splitting, spin orbit coupling and coulomb correlations in iridates are comparable, hence leading to exotic properties, we investigate the physical properties of orthorhombic SrIrO3 using density functional theory. Our calculations, however, show that SrIrO 3 is a bad metal with no long range magnetic ordering, unlike its sister compounds Sr2IrO4 and Sr3Ir2O7. Moreover, despite having large band width, it appears conclusive that the larger resistivity in SrIrO 3 is due to spin orbit interactions. Besides, the effects of electron-electron correlations on its electronic structure and magnetic properties are also discussed.