Emergent antiferromagnetism in diamagnetically substituted pseudospin-1/2 iridate thin film

Recent developments in 5d transition metal oxides have made it a fertile playground to explore exotic emergent phenomena due to the interplay among charge, orbital, spin degrees of freedom. A prominent example is the quasi-2D layered iridate systems where the electronic and antiferromagnetic states of the pseudospin-1/2 electrons are highly susceptible to changes in the structural degrees of freedom. In contrast, the 3D perovskite iridate SrIrO3 is a nonmagnetic semimetal, which is believed to be topologically protected. Recent study showed magnetic order emerges through chemical substitution with nonmagnetic ions, offering an intriguing planform to explore the cooperation between electronic correlation and strong spin orbit coupling beyond the 2D regime. However, bulk perovskite SrIrO3 only exists in polycrystalline form; thus, we have used epitaxial strain to stabilize nonmagnetic ion substituted SrIrO3 in single crystal quality thin film form. Combined with physical properties measurements and synchrotron-based x-ray diffraction and resonant x-ray magnetic scattering, we can resolve its G-type antiferromagnetic structure and further elucidate the structural modulation of its magnetic properties.