Microscopic Mechanism for a Higher-Spin Kitaev Model

Transition metal compounds offer a vast playground for the emergence of unconventional magnetism and novel states like the quantum spin liquid, which can be traced back to bond-dependent interactions like the Kitaev interaction. The microscopic mechanism that brings rise to such interactions is crucial in order to understand their relative strength and how to tune them, which reveals the relevant part of the phase diagram and guides material searches. This has been incredibly successful in studying compounds that form pseudospin 1/2 moments, however, bond-dependent interactions may exist among higher spin S moments as well. In this talk a microscopic mechanism for higher spin S moment models with bond-dependent interactions is presented, where S=1 and S=3/2 cases are addressed explicitly. Possible material candidates that can host this mechanism are also discussed.