Spontaneous Spin Textures in Multiorbital Mott Systems

Spin-orbit coupling is a fundamental interaction in condensed systems, which plays an important role in modern application of magnetism such as current control of magnetic moments. We showed that in specific interacting electron systems spin-orbit interaction may arise by the mechanism spontaneous symmetry breaking. The new low-temperature state has peculiar magnetic properties, e.g., it carries a macroscopic spin current. We predict that in this state it is possible to generate magnetic moments by application of electric current.

Phase diagram of the studied model showing the phase with spin texture (yellow). Right: Distribution of the spin polarization in the momentum space showing that electrons moving in the ‘upper right’ direction are polarized opposite to the electrons moving in the ‘bottom left’ direction.

¹Institute of Physics, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Na Slovance 2, 182 21 Praha 8, Czech Republic
²Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic