Metal-insulator transition in three-band Hubbard model with strong spin-orbit interaction

Recent investigations suggest that both spin-orbit coupling and electron correlation play very crucial roles in the $5d$ transition metal oxides. By using the generalized Gutzwiller variational method and dynamical mean-field theory with the hybridization expansion continuous time quantum Monte Carlo as impurity solver, the three-band Hubbard model with full Hund's rule coupling and spin-orbit interaction terms, which contains the essential physics of partially filled $t_{2g}$ sub-shell of $5d$ materials, is studied systematically. The calculated phase diagram of this model exhibits three distinct phase regions, including metal, band insulator and Mott insulator respectively. We find that the spin-orbit coupling term intends to greatly enhance the tendency of the Mott insulator phase. Furthermore, the influence of the electron-electron interaction on the effective strength of spin-orbit coupling in the metallic phase is studied in detail. We conclude that the electron correlation effect on the effective spin-orbit coupling is far beyond the mean-field treatment even in the intermediate coupling region.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

The electronic structure of NaIrO3_3, Mott insulator or band insulator?

Motivated by the unveiled complexity of nonmagnetic insulating behavior in pentavalent post-perovskite NaIrO$_3$, we have studied its electronic structure and phase diagram in the plane of Coulomb repulsive interaction and spin-orbit coupling (SOC) by using the newly developed local density approximation plus Gutzwiller method. Our theoretical study proposes the metal-insulator transition can be generated by two different physical pictures: renormalized band insulator or Mott insulator regime. For the realistic material parameters in NaIrO$_3$, Coulomb interaction $U=2.0 (J=U/4)$ eV and SOC strength $\eta=0.33$ eV, it tends to favor the renormalized band insulator picture as revealed by our study.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure