Orbital order out of spin disorder: How to measure the orbital gap

Abstract

The interplay between spin and orbital degrees of freedom in the Mott-Hubbard insulator is studied by considering an orbitally degenerate superexchange model. We argue that orbital order and the orbital excitation gap in this model are generated through the order-from-disorder mechanism known previously from frustrated spin models. We propose that the orbital gap should show up indirectly in the dynamical spin structure factor; it can therefore be measured using the conventional inelastic neutron scattering method.