Correlation Effects and Hidden Spin-Orbit Entangled Electronic Order in Parent and Electron-Doped Iridates Sr_{2}IrO_{4}

• Main Authors: Sen Zhou, Kun Jiang, Hua Chen, Ziqiang Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society 2017-10-01
• Series: Physical Review X
• Online Access: http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.7.041018

Analogs of the high-T_{c} cuprates have been long sought after in transition metal oxides. Because of the strong spin-orbit coupling, the 5d perovskite iridates Sr_{2}IrO_{4} exhibit a low-energy electronic structure remarkably similar to the cuprates. Whether a superconducting state exists as in the cuprates requires understanding the correlated spin-orbit entangled electronic states. Recent experiments discovered hidden order in the parent and electron-doped iridates, some with striking analogies to the cuprates, including Fermi surface pockets, Fermi arcs, and pseudogap. Here, we study the correlation and disorder effects in a five-orbital model derived from the band theory. We find that the experimental observations are consistent with a d-wave spin-orbit density wave order that breaks the symmetry of a joint twofold spin-orbital rotation followed by a lattice translation. There is a Berry phase and a plaquette spin flux due to spin procession as electrons hop between Ir atoms, akin to the intersite spin-orbit coupling in quantum spin Hall insulators. The associated staggered circulating J_{eff}=1/2 spin current can be probed by advanced techniques of spin-current detection in spintronics. This electronic order can emerge spontaneously from the intersite Coulomb interactions between the spatially extended iridium 5d orbitals, turning the metallic state into an electron-doped quasi-2D Dirac semimetal with important implications on the possible superconducting state suggested by recent experiments.