Orbital magnetic field driven metal-insulator transition in spinless extended Falicov-Kimball model on a triangular lattice

•Ground state properties of FKM on a triangular lattice at finite magnetic field are studied.•Numerical diagonalization with classical Monte-Carlo simulation algorithm is used.•External Magnetic field induces metal to insulator transition.•Metal to insulator transition accompanied by phase segregation to a regular phase.•Numerical results are relevant for the systems like GdI2, NaTiO2 and NaVO2 etc.

Ground state properties of spinless, extended Falicov-Kimball model (FKM) on a finite size triangular lattice with orbital magnetic field normal to the lattice are studied using numerical diagonalization and Monte-Carlo simulation methods. We show that the ground state configurations of localized electrons strongly depend on the magnetic field. Magnetic field induces a metal to insulator transition accompanied by segregated phase to an ordered regular phase except at density nf=1/2 of localized electrons. It is proposed that magnetic field can be used as a new tool to produce segregated phase which was otherwise accessible only either with correlated hopping or with large on-site interactions.