Suppression of Spin Frustration due to Orbital Selection

Abstract

In order to clarify a crucial role of orbital degree of freedom in geometrically frustrated systems, we investigate both ground- and excited-state properties of the e_g-orbital degenerate Hubbard model on two kinds of lattices, ladder and zigzag chain, by using numerical techniques. In the ladder, spin correlation extends on the whole system, while the zigzag chain is decoupled to a double chain and spin excitation is confined in one side of the double chain due to the selection of a specific orbital. We envision a kind of self-organization phenomenon that the geometrically frustrated multi-orbital system is spontaneously reduced to a one-orbital model to suppress the spin frustration.

4 pages, 4 figures