Orbital degrees of freedom
have attracted much attention in the physics of 3d transition
metal oxides. In particular a quantum effect is one of the
recent important topics in orbital physics.
Electron systems with t2g degenerate orbitals are expected to
have strong quantum effect, because the Jahn-Tellar coupling for
t2g orbitals is weaker than for the eg orbitals. One
of the most investigated t2g systems is RTiO3 (R= Y and
La). YTiO3 is a ferromagnet with Tc~30 K, whereas LaTiO3 is an antiferromagnet
with
TN~150 K. In this study we have studied orbital states in YTiO3
and LaTiO3 by means of NMR. We found that the NMR spectra in a
single crystal of YTiO3 can be explained if the 3d electron
quadrupole moment is reduced from the expected value of the orbital
ordering model based on the Hartree-Fock and GGA band calculations.
This reduction is considered to come from the quantum fluctuation
in the t2g orbitals. We have also in LaTiO3 examined the Ti NMR
spectra based on the orbital liquid and ordering models. We showed
that there is the large 3d electron quadrupole moment, indicating
that the orbital liquid model is inappropriate. The NMR spectra are
explained by the orbital ordering model as (dxy+dyz+dzx)/√3 due to a
crystal field effect. |