No Arabic abstract
The magnetic susceptibility, crystal and magnetic structures, and electronic structure of double perovskite Sr2ScOsO6 are reported. Using both neutron and x-ray powder diffraction we find that the crystal structure is monoclinic P21/n from 3.5 to 300 K. Magnetization measurements indicate an antiferromagnetic transition at TN=92K, one of the highest transition temperatures of any double perovskite hosting only one magnetic ion. Type I antiferromagnetic order is determined by neutron powder diffraction, with an Os moment of only 1.6(1) muB, close to half the spin-only value for a crystal field split 5d electron state with t2g^3 ground state. Density functional calculations show that this reduction is largely the result of strong Os-O hybridization, with spin-orbit coupling responsible for only a ~0.1 muB reduction in the moment.
Structural and magnetic transitions in a double perovskite hosting 5d1 Re ions are discussed on the basis of recently published high-resolution x-ray diffraction patterns [D. Hirai, et al., Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 022063(R) (2020)]. A reported structural transition below room temperature, from cubic to tetragonal symmetry, appears not to be driven by T2g-type quadrupoles, as suggested. A magnetic motif at lower temperature is shown to be composed of two order parameters, associated with propagation vectors k = (0, 0, 1) and k = (0, 0, 0). Findings from our studies, for structural and magnetic properties of Ba2MgReO6, surface in predicted amplitudes for x-ray diffraction at rhenium L2 and L3 absorption edges, and magnetic neutron Bragg diffraction. Specifically, entanglement of anapole and spatial degrees of freedom creates a quadrupole in the neutron scattering amplitude. It would be excluded in an unexpected scenario whereby the rhenium atomic state is a manifold. Also, a chiral signature visible in resonant x-ray diffraction will be one consequence of predicted electronic quadrupole and magnetic dipole orders. A model Re wave function consistent with all current knowledge is a guide to electronic and magnetic multipoles engaged in x-ray and neutron diffraction investigations.
Ba2CoWO6 (BCoW) has been synthesized in polycrystalline form by solid state reaction at 1200C. Structural characterization of the compound was done through X-ray diffraction (XRD) followed by Rietveld analysis of the XRD pattern. The crystal structure is cubic, space group Fm-3m (No 225) with the lattice parameter, a=8.210A. Optical band-gap of the present system has been calculated using the UV-Vis Spectroscopy and Kubelka-Munk function, its value being 2.45 eV. A detailed study of the electronic properties has also been carried out using the density functional theory (DFT) techniques implemented on WIEN2k. Importance of electron-electron interaction between the Co ions leading to half-metallic behavior, crystal and exchange splitting together with the hybridization between O and Co, W has been investigated using the total and partial density of states.
Recent theoretical studies [Chen et al., Phys. Rev. B 82, 174440 (2010), Ishizuka et al., Phys. Rev. B 90, 184422 (2014)] for the magnetic Mott insulator Ba2NaOsO6 have proposed a low-temperature order parameter that breaks lattice rotational symmetry without breaking time reversal symmetry leading to a nematic phase just above magnetic ordering temperature. We present high-resolution calorimetric and magnetization data of the same Ba2NaOsO6 single crystal and show evidence for a weakly field-dependent phase transition occurring at a temperature of Ts ~ 9.5K, above the magnetic ordering temperature of Tc ~ 7.5K. This transition appears as a broadened step in the low-field temperature dependence of the specific heat. The evolution of the phase boundary with applied magnetic field suggests that this phase coincides with the phase of broken local point symmetry seen in high field NMR experiments [Lu et al., Nat. Comm. 8 14407 (2017)]. Furthermore, the magnetic field dependence of the specific heat provides clear indications for magnetic correlations persisting at temperatures between Tc and Ts where long-range magnetic order is absent giving support for the existence of the proposed nematic phase.
KCrF3 represents another prototypical orbital-ordered perovskite, where Cr2+ possesses the same electronic configuration of 3d4 as that of strongly Jahn-Teller distorted Mn3+ in many CMR manganites. The crystal and magnetic structures of KCrF3 compound are investigated by using polarized and unpolarized neutron powder diffraction methods. The results show that the KCrF3 compound crystallizes in tetragonal structure at room temperature and undergoes a monoclinic distortion with the decrease in temperature. The distortion of the crystal structure indicates the presence of cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion which is driven by orbital ordering. With decreasing temperature, four magnetic phase transitions are observed at 79.5, 45.8, 9.5, and 3.2 K, which suggests a rich magnetic phase diagram. Below T_N = 79.5 K, the Cr2+ moment orders in an incommensurate antiferromagnetic arrangement, which can be defined by the magnetic propagation vector (1/2$pm,$$delta,$, 1/2$pm,$$delta,$, 0). The incommensurate-commensurate magnetic transition occurs at 45.8 K and the magnetic propagation vector locks into (1/2, 1/2, 0) with the Cr moment of 3.34(5) $mu_B ,$ aligned ferromagnetically in (220) plane, but antiferromagnetically along [110] direction. Below 9.5 K, the canted antiferromagnetic ordering and weak ferromagnetism arise from the collinear antiferromagnetic structure, while the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and tilted character of the single-ion anisotropy might give rise to the complex magnetic behaviors below 9.5 K.
We present the self-interaction corrected local spin density (SIC-LSD) electronic structure and total energy calculations, leading also to valencies of the ground state configurations, for the half-metallic double perovskites such as Sr$_{2}$FeMoO$_{6}$, Ba$_{2}$FeMoO$_{6}$, Ca$_{2}$FeMoO$_{6}$, and Ca$_{2}$FeReO$_{6}$. We conclude that the Fe and Mo (or Re) spin magnetic moments are anti-parallel aligned, and the magnitude of the hybridization induced moment on Mo does not vary much between the different compounds. The hybridization spin magnetic moment on Re is of the order of -1.1 $mu_{B}$, while that on Mo is about -0.4 $mu_{B}$, independently of the alkaline earth element. Also the electronic structure of all the compounds studied is very similar, with a well defined gap in the majority spin component and metallic density of states for the minority spin component, with highly hybridized Fe, Mo (or Re), and oxygen bands.