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Cooperative effects of lattice and spin-orbit coupling on the electronic structure of orthorhombic SrIrO3

Orthorhombic SrIrO3 subjected to strain show tunable transport properties. With underlying symmetry remaining invariant, these properties are associated with IrO6 octahedral tilting. Adopting to first-principles methods, the effects of crystal field, spin-orbit coupling, and Coulomb correlations, on comparable interaction length scales, are discussed. While tilting induces a t2g-eg crystal-field splitting and band narrowing, spin-orbit coupling induces a partial splitting of the Jeff bands rendering SrIrO3 a semi-metallic ground state. The SOC enhanced hybridization of Ir-O orbitals, serve as a explanation to why the critical Hubbard correlation strength increases with increasing SOC strength in SrIrO3 to induce an insulating phase.