The intertwined charge, spin, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom could endow 5d compounds with exotic properties. Current interest is focused on electromagnetic interactions in these materials, whereas the important role of lattice geometry remains to be fully recognized. For this sake, we investigate pressure-induced phase transitions in the spin-orbit Mott insulator Sr3Ir2O7 with Raman, electrical resistance, and x-ray diffraction measurements. We reveal an interesting magnetic transition coinciding with a structural transition at 14.4 GPa, but without a concurrent insulator-metal transition. The conventional correlation between magnetic and Mott insulating states is thereby absent. The observed softening of the one-magnon mode can be explained by a reduced tetragonal distortion, while the actual magnetic transition is associated with tilting of the IrO6 octahedra. This work highlights the critical role of lattice frustration in determining the high-pressure phases of Sr3Ir2O7. The ability to control electromagnetic properties via manipulating the crystal structure with pressure promises a new way to explore new quantum states in spin-orbit Mott insulators.
The strain derivatives of $T_c$ along the $a$ and $c$ axes have been determined for HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+delta}$ (Hg1201), the simplest monolayer cuprate with the highest $T_c$ of all monolayer cuprates ($T_c$ = 97 K at optimal doping). The underdoped compound with the initial $T_c$ of 65 K has been studied as a function of pressure up to 20 GPa by magnetic susceptibility and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The observed linear increase in $T_c$ with pressure is the same as previously been found for the optimally-doped compound. The above results have enabled the investigation of the origins of the significantly different $T_c$ values of optimally doped Hg1201 and the well-studied compound La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ (LSCO), the latter value of $T_c$ = 40 K being only about 40% of the former. Hg1201 can have almost identical CuO$_6$ octahedra as LSCO if specifically strained. When the apical and in-plane CuO$_2$ distances are the same for the two compounds, a large discrepancy in their $T_c$ remains. Differences in crystal structures and interactions involving the Hg-O charge reservoir layers of Hg1201 may be responsible for the different $T_c$ values exhibited by the two compounds.
The overlap fermion offers the considerable advantage of exact chiral symmetry on the lattice, but is numerically intensive. This can be made affordable while still providing large lattice volumes, by using coarse lattice spacing, given that good scaling and localization properties are established. Here, using overlap fermions on quenched Iwasaki gauge configurations, we demonstrate directly that, with appropriate choice of negative Wilsons mass, the overlap Dirac operators range is comfortably small in lattice units for each of the lattice spacings 0.20 fm, 0.17 fm, and 0.13 fm (and scales to zero in physical units in the continuum limit). In particular, our direct results contradict recent speculation that an inverse lattice spacing of 1 GeV is too low to have satisfactory localization. Furthermore, hadronic masses (available on the two coarser lattices) scale very well.
The overlap fermion offers the tremendous advantage of exact chiral symmetry on the lattice, but is numerically intensive. This can be made affordable while still providing large lattice volumes, by using coarse lattice spacing, given that good scaling and localization properties are established. Here, using overlap fermions on quenched Iwasaki gauge configurations, we demonstrate directly that the overlap Dirac operators range is comfortably small in lattice units for each of the lattice spacings 0.20 fm, 0.17 fm, and 0.13 fm (and scales to zero in physical units in the continuum limit). In particular, our direct results contradict recent speculation that an inverse lattice spacing of $1 {rm GeV}$ is too low to have satisfactory localization. Furthermore, hadronic masses (available on the two coarser lattices) scale very well.
