Correlation effects in pyrochlore iridate thin films grown along the $[111]$ direction

Abstract

Over the past few years bulk pyrochlore iridates of the form $A_2$Ir${}_2$O${}_7$ (where $A$ is a rare earth element, Ir is iridium, and O is oxygen) have been studied as model systems for investigating the interplay of electronic correlations and strong spin-orbit coupling, particularly with the aim of finding correlation-driven topological phases. In this work, we use cellular dynamical mean field theory (CDMFT) to study effects of electronic correlations beyond Hartree-Fock theory in thin films of pyrochlore irradiates grown along the $[111]$ direction. We focus on the bilayer and trilayer systems, and compute the phase diagrams of these systems as a function of electron-electron interaction strength, which is modeled by an on-site Hubbard interaction. By evaluating the $Z_2$ invariant and Chern number using formulas based on the single-particle Green's function and the quasi-particle effective Hamiltonian, we show that on-site correlations can drive an interaction-induced topological phase transition, turning a time-reversal invariant topological insulator and a nearly flat band metal to a correlated Chern insulator (CI) in bilayer and trilayer systems, respectively. By comparing with the Hartree-Fock results, the CDMFT results show that quantum fluctuations enhance the robustness of the interaction-driven CI phase in the thin films. Furthermore, our numerical analysis of the quasiparticle spectrum reveals that the topological phases we find in our many-body calculations are adiabatically connected to those in the single-particle picture.

11 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (19)

• Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Three dimensional topological invariants for time reversal invariant Hamiltonians and the three dimensional quantum spin Hall effect
• The Quantum Spin Hall Effect: Theory and Experiment
• Quantum spin Hall effect in a transition metal oxide Na2IrO3
• Simplified topological invariants for interacting insulators
• Correlation effects in two-dimensional topological insulators
• Fractionalized Topological Insulators
• Emergent topological phenomena in thin films of pyrochlore iridates
• Pyrochlore electrons under pressure, heat and field: shedding light on the iridates
• Electronic structure of (LaNiO${}_3$)${}_2$/(LaAlO${}_3$)${}_N$ heterostructures grown along [111]
• Direct Evidence for the 'All-in/All-out' Magnetic Structure in the Pyrochlore Iridates from $\mu$SR
• Confinement-driven transitions between topological and Mott phases in (LaNiO3)${}_N$/(LaAlO3)${}_M$(111) superlattices
• Topological antiferromagnetic phase in a correlated Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model
• Topological phases in layered pyrochlore oxide thin films along the [111] direction
• Interaction-induced quantum anomalous Hall phase in (111) bilayer of LaCoO${}_3$
• Topological phase transition in a generalized Kane-Mele-Hubbard model: A combined Quantum Monte Carlo and Green's function study
• Gauge-field fluctuations in 3D topological Mott insulators
• Topological Phases in Oxide Heterostructures with Light and Heavy Transition Metal Ions
• First Principles Prediction of Topological Phases in Thin Films of Pyrochlore Iridates

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Recent progress on correlated electron systems with strong spin-orbit coupling
• Mixing of $t_{2g}$-$e_g$ orbitals in 4d and 5d transition metal oxides
• Topological Magnon Bands and Unconventional Superconductivity in Pyrochlore Iridate Thin Films
• Competing orders and topology in the global phase diagram of pyrochlore iridates
• Strong Correlation Effects on Topological Quantum Phase Transitions in Three Dimensions
• Topological magnons with nodal-line and triple-point degeneracies: Implications for thermal Hall effect in pyrochlore iridates
• Epitaxial thin films of pyrochlore iridate Bi_{2+x}Ir_{2-y}O_{7-delta}: structure, defects and transport properties
• Perspective: Strongly correlated and topological states in [111] grown transition metal oxide thin films and heterostructures
• Non-collinear magnetic structure and multipolar order in Eu${}_2$Ir${}_2$O${}_7$
• High-temperature large-gap quantum anomalous Hall insulator in ultrathin double perovskite films
• Theory of Multifarious Quantum Phases and Large Anomalous Hall effect in Pyrochlore Iridate Thin Films
• Quantum Anomalous Hall and Half-metallic Phases in Ferromagnetic (111) Bilayers of 4d and 5d Transition Metal Perovskites
• Topological insulator associated with quantum anomalous Hall phase in ferromagnetic perovskite superlattices
• Strain and onsite-correlation tunable quantum anomalous Hall phases in ferromagnetic (111) LaXO${}_3$ bilayers (X$=$Pd, Pt)
• Intrinsic Magnon Nernst Effects in Pyrochlore Iridate Thin Films
• Restoration of topological properties at finite temperatures in a heavy-fermion system