Strain-driven spin-flop transition and collapse of the giant magnon gap in the bilayer iridate Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$

[2608.22473] Strain-driven spin-flop transition and collapse of the giant magnon gap in the bilayer iridate Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$ Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Condensed Matter > Strongly Correlated Electrons arXiv:2608.22473 (cond-mat) [Submitted on 23 Aug 2026 ( v1 ), last revised 28 Aug 2026 (this version, v2)] Title: Strain-driven spin-flop transition and collapse of the giant magnon gap in the bilayer iridate Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$ Authors: Choong H. Kim View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: The bilayer iridate Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$ is a $c$-axis collinear antiferromagnet, held there by a giant interlayer pseudodipolar anisotropy, whereas single-layer Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ cants in the $ab$ plane. We show from first principles that biaxial compression of a few percent ($\varepsilon_c\approx-2.4\%$) flops the easy axis of Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$ into the plane. A magnetic model Hamiltonian built from Wannier functions with no fitted parameter---reproducing the giant magnon gap of the bulk, so far known only from fits to experiment---identifies the mechanism. Compression collapses the interlayer exchange channel, whose straight Ir--O--Ir path weakens as the bent in-plane path strengthens. Hund's exchange sets the scale of the anisotropy and, beyond $J/U\approx0.15$, removes the collinear state altogether. The flop is not a rigid rotation---the ordered moments of the two states cross at $\varepsilon_c$---and it carries a stark fingerprint, in that the giant easy-axis magnon gap collapses to a gapless, Goldstone-like spectrum. Compressively strained films thus sit on a metamagnetic phase boundary ending in a zero-temperature bicritical point, a charge-neutral handle on spin--orbit-entangled order. Subjects: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) ; Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) Cite as: arXiv:2608.22473 [cond-mat.str-el] (or arXiv:2608.22473v2 [cond-mat.str-el] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.22473 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Choong H. Kim [ view email ] [v1] Sun, 23 Aug 2026 15:51:43 UTC (1,619 KB) [v2] Fri, 28 Aug 2026 01:43:56 UTC (1,565 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: cond-mat.str-el < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-08 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.mtrl-sci References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) IArxiv recommender toggle IArxiv Recommender ( What is IArxiv? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab) Major funding support from

Related documents

• Strain-driven spin-flop transition and collapse of the giant magnon gap in the bilayer iridate Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$#682833
• Extending the La Solubility Limit in Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$ through High-Pressure High-Temperature Synthesis#1123124
• Strain-Induced Metal-to-Insulator Transition in Antiferromagnetic SrCrO$_3$ Thin Films#1034302
• Structural, optical and magnetic proprieties of a new pyrochlore type structure (Bi1.44□0.24Fe0.32)(Sb1.36Fe0.64)O7 compound derived from the Bi1.56 – x/8Sb1.48-x/8Co0.96-xFexO7 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.96) solid solution#156367
• PbTiO3 Second-Principles Interatomic potential#435129