Parity-Breaking Phases of Spin-Orbit-Coupled Metals with Gyrotropic, Ferroelectric, and Multipolar Orders

Abstract

We study Fermi liquid instabilities in spin-orbit-coupled metals with inversion symmetry. By introducing a canonical basis for the doubly degenerate Bloch bands in momentum space, we derive the general form of Landau interaction functions. A variety of time-reversal-invariant, parity-breaking phases is found, whose Fermi surface is spontaneously deformed and spin split. In terms of symmetry, these phases possess gyrotropic, ferroelectric, and multipolar orders. The ferroelectric and multipolar phases are accompanied by structural distortions, from which the electronic orders can be identified. The gyrotropic phase exhibits a unique nonlinear optical property. We identify correlated electron materials that exhibit these parity-breaking phases, including LiOsO[subscript 3] and Cd[subscript 2]Re[subscript 2]O[subscript 7].