2009/07/17 by D. A. Pesin, Leon Balents · 39 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Condensed matter physics #Coulomb #Electron #Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides #Gapless playback #Mott insulator #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Spin–orbit interaction #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #Topology (electrical circuits) #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nphys1606
published as Nature Physics 6, 376 - 381 (2010) · 10+ pages including 3+ pages of Supplementary Information
arxiv created 2009/07/17 · openalex publication_date 2010/03/21 · arxiv updated 2015/05/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Recent theory and experiment have revealed that strong spin-orbit coupling can have dramatic qualitative effects on the band structure of weakly interacting solids. Indeed, it leads to a distinct phase of matter, the topological band insulator. In this paper, we consider the combined effects of spin-orbit coupling and strong electron correlation, and show that the former has both quantitative and qualitative effects upon the correlation-driven Mott transition. As a specific example we take Ir-based pyrochlores, where the subsystem of Ir 5d electrons is known to undergo a Mott transition. At weak electron-electron interaction, we predict that Ir electrons are in a metallic phase at weak spin-orbit interaction, and in a topological band insulator phase at strong spin-orbit interaction. Very generally, we show that with increasing strength of the electron-electron interaction, the effective spin-orbit coupling is enhanced, increasing the domain of the topological band insulator. Furthermore, in our model, we argue that with increasing interactions, the topological band insulator is transformed into a "topological Mott insulator" phase, which is characterized by gapless surface spin-only excitations. The full phase diagram also includes a narrow region of gapless Mott insulator with a spinon Fermi surface, and a magnetically ordered state at still larger electron-electron interaction.