Electric and Magnetic Responses of Two-dimensional Dirac Electrons in Organic Conductor $\alpha$-(BETS)$_2$I$_3$

TL;DR

This paper investigates how spin-orbit coupling affects the electric and magnetic responses of two-dimensional Dirac electrons in the organic conductor $ ext{α}$-(BETS)$_2$I$_3$, revealing suppression of conductivity and changes in anisotropy at low temperatures.

Contribution

It introduces a tight-binding model incorporating SOC effects derived from first-principles calculations, providing new insights into the electronic properties of $ ext{α}$-(BETS)$_2$I$_3$.

Findings

SOC suppresses conductivity at low temperatures.

SOC reduces anisotropy of conductivity.

High-temperature conductivity remains nearly constant due to electron-phonon scattering.

Abstract

Effect of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) on Dirac electrons in the organic conductor $\alpha$-(BETS)$_2$I$_3$ [BETS = bis(ethylenedithio)tetraselenafulvalene] has been examined by calculating electric conductivity and spin magnetic susceptibility. A tight-binding (TB) model with real and imaginary transfer energies is derived using first-principles density-functional theory method. The conductivity without the SOC depends on both anisotropies of the velocity of the Dirac cone and the tiling of the cone. Such conductivity is suppressed by the SOC, which gives rise to the imaginary part of the transfer energy. Due to the SOC, we find at low temperatures that the reduction of the conductivity becomes large and that the anisotropy of the conductivity is reduced. A nearly constant conductivity at high temperatures is obtained by an electron--phonon (e--p) scattering. Further, the property of the Dirac cone is examined for the spin susceptibility, which is mainly determined by the density of states (DOS). The result is compared with the case of the organic conductor $\alpha$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$I$_3$ [BEDT-TTF=bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene], which provides the Dirac cone without the SOC. The relevance to experiments is discussed.