Abstract
A mechanism for the removal of orbital degeneracy in LaTiO3 is proposed. Assuming an antiferromagnetic spin ordering (presumably induced by some deviations from the fully symmetric Kugel-Khomskii (KK) model Hamiltonian), we show that the two-magnon excitations play a crucial role in the formation of the orbital liquid. The strongly damped orbital excitations (orbitons) merge into a common continuum with the spin excitations. As a result, the orbital dynamics do modify the stiffness of the spin waves but do not participate as a separate branch of excitations in the low-temperature thermodynamics. Therefore, the direct experimental observation of the orbital dynamics at low temperatures is hardly possible.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 346-347 |
Number of pages | 2 |
Journal | Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials |
Volume | 272-276 |
Issue number | I |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 2004 |
Keywords
- Magnetic oxide
- Orbital liquid
- Titanate