Spin-orbital Jahn-Teller bipolarons

• Published in: Nature communications 2024-03, Vol.15 (1), p.2429-9, Article 2429
• Main Authors: Celiberti, Lorenzo, Fiore Mosca, Dario, Allodi, Giuseppe, Pourovskii, Leonid V., Tassetti, Anna, Forino, Paola Caterina, Cong, Rong, Garcia, Erick, Tran, Phuong M., De Renzi, Roberto, Woodward, Patrick M., Mitrović, Vesna F., Sanna, Samuele, Franchini, Cesare
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/301/119/1000; 639/766/119/995; Angular momentum; Charge transport; Coexistence; Coupling; Doping; Electron phonon interactions; Electron spin; Electrons; Elementary excitations; Humanities and Social Sciences; Insulators; Jahn-Teller effect; Lattices; Localization; Magnetic measurement; Metal-insulator transition; multidisciplinary; Phonons; Physics; Polarons; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Spin-orbit interactions; Transition metal oxides
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46621-0

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 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 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 Ba 2 Na 1−x Ca x OsO 6 (0