Electric-field control of magnetic anisotropies: Applications to Kitaev spin liquids and topological spin textures

Magnetic anisotropies often originate from the spin-orbit coupling and determine magnetic ordering patterns. We develop a microscopic theory for dc electric-field controls of magnetic anisotropies in magnetic Mott insulators and discuss its applications to Kitaev materials and topological spin textures. Throughout this paper, we take a microscopic approach based on Hubbard-type lattice models, tight-binding models with onsite interactions. We derive a low-energy spin Hamiltonian from a fourth-order perturbation expansion of the Hubbard-type model. We show in the presence of a strong intra-atomic spin-orbit coupling that dc electric fields add non-Kitaev interactions such as a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and an off-diagonal Γ ′ interaction to the Kitaev-Heisenberg model and can induce a topological quantum phase transition between Majorana Chern insulating phases. We also investigate the interatomic Rashba spin-orbit coupling and its effects on topological spin textures. dc electric fields turn out to create and annihilate magnetic skyrmions, hedgehogs, and chiral solitons. We propose several methods of creating topological spin textures with external electromagnetic fields. Our theory clarifies that the strong but feasible electric field can control Kitaev spin liquids and topological spin textures.