Revisiting the Kitaev material candidacy of Ir4+ double perovskite iridates

Kitaev materials, based on bond-directional Ising interactions, offer an intriguing platform for hosting exotic magnetic ground states and excitations. Significant Kitaev interactions are most commonly realized in heavy transition metal magnets with so-called ${J}_{\mathrm{eff}}$ = \textonehalf{} electronic ground states for the transition metal and local geometries consisting of metal-ligand edge-sharing octahedra. Here, the authors show that Kitaev materials can also be realized in ${J}_{\mathrm{eff}}$ = \textonehalf{} magnets via extended superexchange pathways mediated by more than one anion.