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Orbital magnetization in periodic insulators

T. Thonhauser·Davide Ceresoli·David Vanderbilt·R. Resta
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Abstract

Working in the Wannier representation, we derive an expression for the orbital magnetization of a periodic insulator. The magnetization is shown to be comprised of two contributions, an obvious one associated with the internal circulation of bulk-like Wannier functions in the interior, and an unexpected one arising from net currents carried by Wannier functions near the surface. Each contribution can be expressed as a bulk property in terms of Bloch functions in a gauge-invariant way. Our expression is verified by comparing numerical tight-binding calculations for finite and periodic samples.

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T. Thonhauser, Davide Ceresoli, David Vanderbilt, R. Resta. 2005-06-16. Orbital magnetization in periodic insulators. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.95.137205

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