Spin and charge order in doped spin-orbit coupled Mott insulators

Abstract

We study a two-dimensional single band Hubbard Hamiltonian with antisymmetric spin-orbit coupling. We argue that this is the minimal model to understand the electronic properties of locally non-centrosymmetric transition-metal (TM) oxides such as Sr$_2$IrO$_4$. Based on exact diagonalizations of small clusters and the random phase approximation, we investigate the correlation effects on charge and magnetic order as a function of doping and of the TM-oxygen-TM bond angle $\theta$. For small doping and $\theta$ $\lesssim$ $15^\circ$ we find dominant commensurate in-plane antiferromagnetic fluctuations while ferromagnetic fluctuations dominate for $\theta$ $\gtrsim$ $25^\circ$. Moderately strong nearest-neighbor Hubbard interactions can also stabilize a charge density wave order. Furthermore, we compare the dispersion of magnetic excitations for the hole-doped case to resonant inelastic X-ray scattering data and find good qualitative agreement.