Spin-orbital Jahn-Teller bipolarons
- Author(s)
- Lorenzo Celiberti, Dario Fiore Mosca, Giuseppe Allodi, Leonid V. Pourovskii, Anna Tassetti, Paola Caterina Forino, Rong Cong, Erick Garcia, Phuong M. Tran, Roberto De Renzi, Patrick M. Woodward, Vesna F. Mitrović, Samuele Sanna, Cesare Franchini
- Abstract
Polarons and spin-orbit (SO) coupling are distinct quantum effects that play a critical role in charge transport and spin-orbitronics. Polarons originate from strong electron-phonon interaction and are ubiquitous in polarizable materials featuring electron localization, in particular $\mathrm{3d}$ transition metal oxides (TMOs). On the other hand, the relativistic coupling between the spin and orbital angular momentum is notable in lattices with heavy atoms and develops in $\mathrm{5d}$ TMOs, where electrons are spatially delocalized. Here we combine ab initio calculations and magnetic measurements to show that these two seemingly mutually exclusive interactions are entangled in the electron-doped SO-coupled Mott insulator $\mathrm{Ba_2Na_{1-x}Ca_xOsO_6}$ ($0< x < 1$), unveiling the formation of spin-orbital bipolarons. Polaron charge trapping, favoured by the Jahn-Teller lattice activity, converts the Os $\mathrm{5d^1}$ spin-orbital $\mathrm{J_{eff}=3/2}$ levels, characteristic of the parent compound $\mathrm{Ba_2NaOsO_6}$ (BNOO), into a bipolaron $\mathrm{5d^2}$ $\mathrm{J_{eff}=2}$ manifold, leading to the coexistence of different J-effective states in a single-phase material. The gradual increase of bipolarons with increasing doping creates robust in-gap states that prevents the transition to a metal phase even at ultrahigh doping, thus preserving the Mott gap across the entire doping range from $\mathrm{d^1}$ BNOO to $\mathrm{d^2}$ $\mathrm{Ba_2CaOsO_6}$ (BCOO).
- Organisation(s)
- Computational Materials Physics
- External organisation(s)
- University of Bologna, Brown University, Università degli studi di Parma, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, l'Université PSL, Ohio State University, École Polytechnique, Collège de France
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Volume
- 15
- No. of pages
- 9
- ISSN
- 2041-1723
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46621-0
- Publication date
- 06-2023
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103009 Solid state physics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy, General Chemistry, General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/503df268-dafd-4233-894a-668e2ee68420