Orbital Hall effect and orbital edge states caused by s electrons

Oliver Busch, Ingrid Mertig, Börge Göbel

Published 2023-06-29Version 1

An orbital current can be generated whenever an object has a translational and rotational degree of freedom. In condensed matter physics, intra-atomic contributions to the transverse orbital transport, labeled orbital Hall effect, rely on propagating wave packets that must consist of hybridized atomic orbitals. However, inter-atomic contributions have to be considered as well because they give rise to a new mechanism for generating orbital currents. As we show, even wave packets consisting purely of s electrons can transport orbital angular momentum if they move on a cycloid trajectory. We introduce the kagome lattice with a single s orbital per atom as the minimal model for the orbital Hall effect and observe the cycloid motion of the electrons in the surface states.