Orbital occupancies and the putative jeff = 1/2 groundstate in Ba2IrO4: a combined oxygen K edge XAS and RIXS study

Abstract

The nature of the electronic groundstate of Ba2IrO4 has been addressed using soft X-ray absorption and inelastic scattering techniques in the vicinity of the oxygen K edge. From the polarization and angular dependence of XAS we deduce an approximately equal superposition of xy, yz and zx Ir4+ 5d orbitals. By combining the measured orbital occupancies, with the value of the spin-orbit coupling provided by RIXS, we estimate the crystal field splitting associated with the tetragonal distortion of the IrO6 octahedra to be small, Δ=50(50) meV. We thus conclude definitively that Ba2IrO4 is a close realization of a spin-orbit Mott insulator with a jeff = 1/2 groundstate, thereby overcoming ambiguities in this assignment associated with the interpretation of X-ray resonant scattering experiments.

5 pages, 5 figures

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• Multiband $d-p$ model and self-doping in the electronic structure of Ba${}_2$IrO${}_4$
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• A $j_{\mathrm{eff}}=1/2$ pseudospinon continuum in CaIrO${}_3$
• The rich phase diagram of the prototypical iridate Ba${}_2$IrO${}_4$: Effective low-energy models and metal-insulator transition