Microscopic study of orbital textures

Abstract

Many interesting spin and orbital transport phenomena originate from orbital textures, referring to k-dependent orbital states. Most of previous works are based on symmetry analysis to model the orbital texture and analyze its consequences. However the microscopic origins of orbital texture and its strength are largely unexplored. In this work, we derive the orbital texture Hamiltonians from microscopic tight-binding models for various situations. To form an orbital texture, k-dependent hybridization of orbital states are necessary. We reveal two microscopic mechanisms for the hybridization: (i) lattice structure effect and (ii) mediation by other orbital states. By considering the orbital hybridization, we not only reproduce the orbital Hamiltonian obtained by the symmetry analysis but also reveal previously unreported orbital textures like orbital Dresselhaus texture and anisotropic orbital texture. The orbital Hamiltonians obtained here would be useful for analyzing the orbital physics and designing the materials suitable for spin-orbitronic applications.