Spin-orbital excitons and their potential condensation in pentavalent iridates

Abstract

We investigate magnetic excitations in iridium insulators with pentavalent Ir$^{5+}$ ($5d^4$) ions with strong spin-orbit coupling. We obtain a microscopic model based on the local Ir$^{5+}$ multiplets involving $J=0$ (singlet), $J=1$ (triplet), and $J=2$ (quintet) spin-orbital states. We get effective interactions between these multiplets on square and face-centered-cubic (fcc) structures of magnetic ions in the layered-perovskites and the double-perovkites, in particular Ba$_2$YIrO$_6$. Further, we derive an effective spin-orbital Hamiltonian in terms of bond bosons and explore possible instabilities towards magnetic and quadrupole orderings. Additionally, we study charge excitations with help of the variational cluster perturbation theory and calculate the electronic charge gap as a function of hopping and Coulomb interactions. Based on both electronic and magnetic phase diagrams, we verify the possibility of excitonic magnetism due to condensation of spin-orbital excitons in Ir$^{5+}$ iridates.