Spin-Orbital Ordering in Alkali Superoxides

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Shibata, Kohei, Naka, Makoto, Jeschke, Harald O., Otsuki, Junya
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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_version_ 1866929379959898112
author Shibata, Kohei
Naka, Makoto
Jeschke, Harald O.
Otsuki, Junya
author_facet Shibata, Kohei
Naka, Makoto
Jeschke, Harald O.
Otsuki, Junya
contents Akali superoxides AO2 (A=Na, K, Rb, Cs), due to an open p shell of the oxygen ion O2^- with degenerate pi orbitals, have spin and orbital degrees of freedom. The complex magnetic, orbital, and structural phase transitions observed experimentally in this family of materials are only partially understood. Based on density functional theory, we derive a strong-coupling effective model for the isostructural compounds AO2 (A=K, Rb, Cs) from a two-orbital Hubbard model. We find that CsO2 has highly frustrated exchange interactions in the a-b plane, while the frustration is weaker for RbO2 and KO2. We solve the resulting Kugel-Khomskii model in the mean-field approximation. We show that CsO2 exhibits an antiferro-orbital (AFO) order with the ordering vector q=(1,0,0) and a stripe antiferromagnetic order with q=(1/2,0,0), which is consistent with recent neutron scattering experiments. We discuss the role of the pi-orbital degrees of freedom for the experimentally observed magnetic transitions and interpret the as-yet-unidentified T_s2=70K transition in CsO2 as an orbital ordering transition.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_11698
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Spin-Orbital Ordering in Alkali Superoxides
Shibata, Kohei
Naka, Makoto
Jeschke, Harald O.
Otsuki, Junya
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Materials Science
Akali superoxides AO2 (A=Na, K, Rb, Cs), due to an open p shell of the oxygen ion O2^- with degenerate pi orbitals, have spin and orbital degrees of freedom. The complex magnetic, orbital, and structural phase transitions observed experimentally in this family of materials are only partially understood. Based on density functional theory, we derive a strong-coupling effective model for the isostructural compounds AO2 (A=K, Rb, Cs) from a two-orbital Hubbard model. We find that CsO2 has highly frustrated exchange interactions in the a-b plane, while the frustration is weaker for RbO2 and KO2. We solve the resulting Kugel-Khomskii model in the mean-field approximation. We show that CsO2 exhibits an antiferro-orbital (AFO) order with the ordering vector q=(1,0,0) and a stripe antiferromagnetic order with q=(1/2,0,0), which is consistent with recent neutron scattering experiments. We discuss the role of the pi-orbital degrees of freedom for the experimentally observed magnetic transitions and interpret the as-yet-unidentified T_s2=70K transition in CsO2 as an orbital ordering transition.
title Spin-Orbital Ordering in Alkali Superoxides
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.11698