No Arabic abstract
The archetypal $3d$ Mott insulator hematite, Fe$_2$O$_3$, is one of the basic oxide components playing an important role in mineralogy of Earths lower mantle. Its high pressure-temperature behavior, such as the electronic properties, equation of state, and phase stability is of fundamental importance for understanding the properties and evolution of the Earths interior. Here, we study the electronic structure, magnetic state, and lattice stability of Fe$_2$O$_3$ at ultra-high pressures using the density functional plus dynamical mean-field theory (DFT+DMFT) approach. In the vicinity of a Mott transition, Fe$_2$O$_3$ is found to exhibit a series of complex electronic, magnetic, and structural transformations. In particular, it makes a phase transition to a metal with a post-perovskite crystal structure and site-selective local moments upon compression above 75 GPa. We show that the site-selective phase transition is accompanied by a charge disproportionation of Fe ions, with Fe$^{3pm delta}$ and $delta sim 0.05$-$0.09$, implying a complex interplay between electronic correlations and the lattice. Our results suggest that site-selective local moments in Fe$_2$O$_3$ persist up to ultra-high pressures of $sim$200-250 GPa, i.e., sufficiently above the core-mantle boundary. The latter can have important consequences for understanding of the velocity and density anomalies in the Earths lower mantle.
La$_2$O$_3$Fe$_2$Se$_2$ can be explained in terms of Mott localization in sharp contrast with the metallic behavior of FeSe and other parent parent compounds of iron superconductors. We demonstrate that the key ingredient that makes La$_2$O$_3$Fe$_2$Se$_2$ a Mott insulator, rather than a correlated metal dominated by the Hunds coupling is the enhanced crystal-field splitting, accompanied by a smaller orbital-resolved kinetic energy. The strong deviation from orbital degeneracy introduced by the crystal-field splitting also pushes this materials close to an orbital-selective Mott transition. We predict that either doping or uniaxial external pressure can drive the material into an orbital-selective Mott state, where only one or few orbitals are metallized while the others remain insulating.
We present a computational study of PbCoO$_3$ at ambient and elevated pressure. We employ the static and dynamic treatment of local correlation in form of density functional theory + $U$ (DFT+$U$) and + dynamical mean-field theory (DFT+DMFT). Our results capture the experimentally observed crystal structures and identify the unsaturated Pb $6s$ - O $2p$ bonds as the driving force beyond the complex physics of PbCoO$_3$. We provide a geometrical analysis of the structural distortions and discuss their implications, in particular, the internal doping, which triggers transition between phases with and without local moments and a site selective Mott transition in the low-pressure phase.
We have measured the reflectivity spectra of the barium iridate $9R$ BaIrO$_3$, the crystal structure of which consists of characteristic Ir$_3$O$_{12}$ trimers. In the high-temperature phase above the transition temperature $T_csimeq180$ K, we find that the optical conductivity involves two temperature-dependent optical transitions with an ill-defined Drude response. These features are reminiscent of the optical spectra in the organic dimer Mott insulators, implying a possible emergence of an unusual electronic state named trimer Mott insulator in BaIrO$_3$, where the carrier is localized on the trimer owing to the strong Coulomb repulsion. Along with a pronounced splitting of the phonon peak observed below $T_c$, which is a hallmark of charge disproportionation, we discuss a possible phase transition from the trimer Mott insulator to a charge-ordered insulating phase in BaIrO$_3$.
Bilayer ruthenate Ca$_3$(Ru$_{1-x}$Fe$_x$)$_2$O$_7$ ($x$ = 0.05) exhibits an incommensurate magnetic soliton lattice driven by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Here we report complex field-induced magnetic phase transitions and memory effect in this system via single-crystal neutron diffraction and magnetotransport measurements. We observe first-order incommensurate-to-commensurate magnetic transitions upon applying the magnetic field both along and perpendicular to the propagation axis of the incommensurate spin structure. Furthermore, we find that the metastable states formed upon decreasing the magnetic field depend on the temperature and the applied field orientation. We suggest that the observed field-induced metastability may be ascribable to the quenched kinetics at low temperature.
We perform Raman spectroscopy studies on $alpha$-RuCl$_3$ at room temperature to explore its phase transitions of magnetism and chemical bonding under pressures. The Raman measurements resolve two critical pressures, about $p_1=1.1$~GPa and $p_2=1.7$~GPa, involving very different intertwining behaviors between the structural and magnetic excitations. With increasing pressures, a stacking order phase transition of $alpha$-RuCl$_3$ layers develops at $p_1=1.1$~GPa, indicated by the new Raman phonon modes and the modest Raman magnetic susceptibility adjustment. The abnormal softening and splitting of the Ru in-plane Raman mode provide direct evidence of the in-plane dimerization of the Ru-Ru bonds at $p_2=1.7$~GPa. The Raman susceptibility is greatly enhanced with pressure increasing and sharply suppressed after the dimerization. We propose that the system undergoes Mott collapse at $p_2=1.7$~GPa and turns into a dimerized correlated band insulator. Our studies demonstrate competitions between Kitaev physics, magnetism, and chemical bondings in Kitaev compounds.