We investigate the temporal evolution of electronic states in strontium iridate Sr$_2$IrO$_4$. The time resolved photoemission spectra of intrinsic, electron doped and the hole doped samples are monitored in identical experimental conditions. Our data on intrinsic and electron doped samples, show that primary doublon-holon pairs relax near to the chemical potential on a timescale shorter than $70$ fs. The subsequent cooling of low energy excitations takes place in two step: a rapid dynamics of $cong120$ fs is followed by a slower decay of $cong 1$ ps. The reported timescales endorse the analogies between Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ and copper oxides.
The effect of compression on the magnetic ground state of Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ is studied with x-ray resonant techniques in the diamond anvil cell. The weak interlayer exchange coupling between square-planar 2D IrO$_2$ layers is readily modified upon compression, with a crossover between magnetic structures around 7 GPa mimicking the effect of an applied magnetic field at ambient pressure. Higher pressures drive an order-disorder magnetic phase transition with no magnetic order detected above 17-20 GPa. The persistence of strong exchange interactions between $mathrm{J_{eff}}=1/2$ magnetic moments within the insulating IrO$_2$ layers up to at least 35 GPa points to a highly frustrated magnetic state in compressed Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ opening the door for realization of novel quantum paramagnetic phases driven by extended $5d$ orbitals with entangled spin and orbital degrees of freedom.
We show that, contrary to previous belief, the transition to the antiferromagnetic state of Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ in zero magnetic field does show up in the transverse resistivity. We attribute this to a change in transverse integrals associated to the magnetic ordering, which is evaluated considering hopping of the localized charge. The evolution of the resistivity anomaly associated to the magnetic transition under applied magnetic field is studied. It tracks the magnetic phase diagram, allowing to identify three different lines, notably the spin-flip line, associated with the reordering of the ferromagnetic component of the magnetization, and an intriguing line for field induced magnetism, also corroborated by magnetization measurements.
The spin-orbit Mott insulator Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$ has attracted a lot of interest in recent years from theory and experiment due to its close connection to isostructural high-temperature copper oxide superconductors. Despite of not being superconducting its spectral features closely resemble those of the cuprates, including Fermi surface and pseudogap properties. In this article, we review and extend recent work in the theoretical description of the spectral function of pure and electron-doped Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$ based on a cluster extension of dynamical mean-field theory (oriented-cluster DMFT) and compare it to available angle-resolved photoemission data. Current theories provide surprisingly good agreement for pure and electron-doped Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$, both in the paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases. Most notably, one obtains simple explanations for the experimentally observed steep feature around the $M$ point and the pseudo-gap-like spectral feature in electron-doped Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$.
We present a theoretical investigation of the effects of correlations on the electronic structure of the Mott insulator Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ upon electron doping. A rapid collapse of the Mott gap upon doping is found, and the electronic structure displays a strong momentum-space differentiation at low doping level: The Fermi surface consists of pockets centered around $(pi/2,pi/2)$, while a pseudogap opens near $(pi,0)$. Its physical origin is shown to be related to short-range spin correlations. The pseudogap closes upon increasing doping, but a differentiated regime characterized by a modulation of the spectral intensity along the Fermi surface persists to higher doping levels. These results, obtained within the cellular dynamical mean-field theory framework, are discussed in comparison to recent photoemission experiments and an overall good agreement is found.
In the context of correlated insulators, where electron-electron interactions (U) drive the localization of charge carriers, the metal-insulator transition (MIT) is described as either bandwidth (BC) or filling (FC) controlled. Motivated by the challenge of the insulating phase in Sr$_2$IrO$_4$, a new class of correlated insulators has been proposed, in which spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is believed to renormalize the bandwidth of the half-filled $j_{mathrm{eff}} = 1/2$ doublet, allowing a modest U to induce a charge-localized phase. Although this framework has been tacitly assumed, a thorough characterization of the ground state has been elusive. Furthermore, direct evidence for the role of SOC in stabilizing the insulating state has not been established, since previous attempts at revealing the role of SOC have been hindered by concurrently occurring changes to the filling. We overcome this challenge by employing multiple substituents that introduce well defined changes to the signatures of SOC and carrier concentration in the electronic structure, as well as a new methodology that allows us to monitor SOC directly. Specifically, we study Sr$_2$Ir$_{1-x}$T$_x$O$_4$ (T = Ru, Rh) by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), combined with ab-initio and supercell tight-binding calculations. This allows us to distinguish relativistic and filling effects, thereby establishing conclusively the central role of SOC in stabilizing the insulating state of Sr$_2$IrO$_4$. Most importantly, we estimate the critical value for spin-orbit coupling in this system to be $lambda_c = 0.42 pm 0.01$ eV, and provide the first demonstration of a spin-orbit-controlled MIT.