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arXiv:1411.4496 · Physical Review Letters

Spin-Orbital Exchange of Strongly Interacting Fermions in the p Band of a Two-Dimensional Optical Lattice

Zhenyu Zhou, Erhai Zhao, W. Vincent Liu

Published Mar 13, 2015• 12 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Mott insulators with both spin and orbital degeneracy are pertinent to a large number of transition metal oxides. The intertwined spin and orbital fluctuations can lead to rather exotic phases such as quantum spin-orbital liquids. Here, we consider two-component (spin 1/2) fermionic atoms with strong repulsive interactions on the p band of the optical square lattice. We derive the spin-orbital exchange for quarter filling of the p band when the density fluctuations are suppressed, and show that it frustrates the development of long-range spin order. Exact diagonalization indicates a spin-disordered ground state with ferro-orbital order. The system dynamically decouples into individual Heisenberg spin chains, each realizing a Luttinger liquid accessible at higher temperatures compared to atoms confined to the s band.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.114.100406

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Based on a generalized one-band Hubbard model, we study magnetic properties of Mott insulating states for ultracold spin-32\frac{3}{2}23​ fermionic atoms in optical lattices. When the sss-wave scattering lengths for the total spin S=2,0S=2,0S=2,0 satisfy conditions a2>a0>0{a}_{2}>{a}_{0}>0a2​>a0​>0, we apply a functional integral approach to the half filled case, where the spin-quadrupole fluctuations dominate. On a two-dimensional square lattice, the saddle-point solution yields a staggered spin-quadrupole ordering at zero temperature with symmetry breaking from SO(5) to SO(4). Both spin and spin-quadrupole static structure factors are calculated, displaying highly anisotropic spin antiferromagnetic fluctuations and antiferroquadrupole long-range correlations, respectively. When Gaussian fluctuations around the saddle point are taken into account, spin-quadrupole density waves with a linear dispersion are derived. Compared with the spin-density waves in the half filled spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ Hubbard model, the quadrupole density wave velocity is saturated in the strong-coupling limit, and there are no transverse spin-quadrupole mode couplings, as required by the SO(4) invariance of the effective action. Finally, in the strong-coupling limit of the model Hamiltonian, we derive the effective hyperfine spin-exchange interactions for the Mott insulating phases in the quarter filled and half filled cases, respectively.
A gas of strongly interacting single-species (spinless) p-orbital fermionic atoms in 2D optical lattices is proposed and studied. Several interesting new features are found. In the Mott limit on a square lattice, the gas is found to be described effectively by an orbital exchange Hamiltonian equivalent to a pseudospin-1/2 XXZ model. For a triangular, honeycomb, or kagome lattice, the orbital exchange is geometrically frustrated and described by a new quantum 120 degrees model. We determine the orbital ordering on the kagome lattice, and show how orbital wave fluctuations select ground states via the order by disorder mechanism for the honeycomb lattice. We discuss experimental signatures of various orbital ordering.
We theoretically investigate, using non-perturbative strong correlation techniques, Mott insulating phases and magnetic ordering of two-component fermions in a two-dimensional double-well optical lattice. At filling of two fermions per site, there are two types of Mott insulators, one of which is characterized by spin-1 antiferromagnetism below the Neel temperature. The super-exchange interaction in this system is induced by the interplay between the inter-band interaction and the spin degree of freedom. A great advantage of the double-well optical lattice is that the magnetic quantum phase diagram and the Neel temperature can be easily controlled by tuning the orbital energy splitting of the two-level system. Particularly, the Neel temperature can be one order of magnitude larger than that in standard optical lattices, facilitating the experimental search for magnetic ordering in optical lattice systems.
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We first introduce the ultracold atoms and the optical lattices. Then, we analyze various Mott insulating phases of interacting spin-3=2 fermionic ultracold atoms in two-dimensional square optical lattices. Using a generalized Hubbard model, we identify two distinct symmetry breaking phases: the spin-quadrupole ordering phase and the spin-dipole-spin-octupole ordering phase. Near the SU(4) symmetric point, we find that an algebraic spin liquid phase may emerge due to strong quantum fluctuations. Finally, the possible quantum phase transitions between these exotic phases are also discussed.