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Author: Van Den Brink, J. × Publisher: London : Nature Publishing Group ×

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    Correlation induced electron-hole asymmetry in quasi- two-dimensional iridates
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2017) Pärschke, E.M.; Wohlfeld, K.; Foyevtsova, K.; Van Den Brink, J.
    The resemblance of crystallographic and magnetic structures of the quasi-two-dimensional iridates Ba2IrO4 and Sr2IrO4 to La2CuO4 points at an analogy to cuprate high-Tc superconductors, even if spin-orbit coupling is very strong in iridates. Here we examine this analogy for the motion of a charge (hole or electron) added to the antiferromagnetic ground state. We show that correlation effects render the hole and electron case in iridates very different. An added electron forms a spin polaron, similar to the cuprates, but the situation of a removed electron is far more complex. Many-body 5d 4 configurations form which can be singlet and triplet states of total angular momentum that strongly affect the hole motion. This not only has ramifications for the interpretation of (inverse-)photoemission experiments but also demonstrates that correlation physics renders electron- and hole-doped iridates fundamentally different.
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    Pressure-driven collapse of the relativistic electronic ground state in a honeycomb
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2018) Clancy, J.P.; Gretarsson, H.; Sears, J.A.; Singh, Y.; Desgreniers, S.; Mehlawat, K.; Layek, S.; Rozenberg, G.K.; Ding, Y.; Upton, M.H.; Casa, D.; Chen, N.; Im, J.; Lee, Y.; Yadav, R.; Hozoi, L.; Efremov, D.; Van Den Brink, J.; Kim, Y.-J.
    Honeycomb-lattice quantum magnets with strong spin-orbit coupling are promising candidates for realizing a Kitaev quantum spin liquid. Although iridate materials such as Li2IrO3 and Na2IrO3 have been extensively investigated in this context, there is still considerable debate as to whether a localized relativistic wavefunction (J eff = 1/2) provides a suitable description for the electronic ground state of these materials. To address this question, we have studied the evolution of the structural and electronic properties of α-Li2IrO3 as a function of applied hydrostatic pressure using a combination of X-ray diffraction and X-ray spectroscopy techniques. We observe striking changes even under the application of only small hydrostatic pressure (P ≤ 0.1 GPa): A distortion of the Ir honeycomb lattice (via X-ray diffraction), a dramatic decrease in the strength of spin-orbit coupling effects (via X-ray absorption spectroscopy), and a significant increase in non-cubic crystal electric field splitting (via resonant inelastic X-ray scattering). Our data indicate that α-Li2IrO3 is best described by a J eff = 1/2 state at ambient pressure, but demonstrate that this state is extremely fragile and collapses under the influence of applied pressure.