Ferrimagnetism Induced by Off-Site Coulomb Interaction in an Itinerant Electron System

TL;DR

This paper investigates how off-site Coulomb interactions induce ferrimagnetism in an itinerant electron system, revealing the microscopic mechanisms and phase stability through theoretical modeling and analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a two-band extended Hubbard model to explain weak ferromagnetism in $ au$-type molecular conductors, highlighting the role of off-site interactions in stabilizing ferrimagnetism.

Findings

Off-site interactions induce ferrimagnetism from antiferromagnetic states.

Lowering temperature stabilizes ferrimagnetism.

FIM arises from mixing antiferromagnetism, charge order, and ferromagnetism.

Abstract

Motivated by weak ferromagnetism (FM) in a $\tau$-type molecular conductor ($\tau$-MC), we examine its mechanism using a two-band extended Hubbard model. Applying the random phase approximation, we elucidate the uniform spin and charge fluctuations between unit cells in the presence of on-site and off-site interactions. Applying the mean-field approximation, we find the ordered state mixing with antiferromagnetism (AFM), weak FM, and charge ordering (CO) components in each unit cell: we classify this state as ferrimagnetism (FIM). We reveal the phase diagrams in the interaction and interaction-temperature spaces. The former shows that the off-site interaction induces FIM from pure AFM and the latter shows that lowering the temperature stabilizes FIM. To clarify the stabilization mechanism of the phases, we focus on the microscopic nature of the ordered states, including the band structure, Fermi surface, and density of states. We find that the FIM state is obtained from mixing features of AFM, CO, and FM; therefore, the emergence of FIM requires both the on-site and off-site interactions. Then, we discuss the effect of lowering the temperature and predict that the AFM gap assists the emergence of FIM based on AFM. This FIM state is possibly related to the observation of the weak FM in $\tau$-MC.