We present powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction data as evidence for a monoclinic distortion in the low spin (S=0) and intermediate spin state (S=1) of LaCoO3. The alternation of short and long bonds in the ab plane indicates the presence of eg orbital ordering induced by a cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion. We observe an increase of the Jahn-Teller distortion with temperature in agreement with a thermally activated behavior of the Co3+ ions from a low-spin ground state to an intermediate-spin excited state.
We present measurements of the magnetic susceptibility and of the thermal expansion of a LaCoO$_3$ single crystal. Both quantities show a strongly anomalous temperature dependence. Our data are consistently described in terms of a spin-state transition of the Co$^{3+}$ ions with increasing temperature from a low-spin ground state to an intermediate-spin state without (100K - 500K) and with (>500K) orbital degeneracy. We attribute the lack of orbital degeneracy up to 500K to (probably local) Jahn-Teller distortions of the CoO$_6$ octahedra. A strong reduction or disappearance of the Jahn-Teller distortions seems to arise from the insulator-to-metal transition around 500 K.
We have observed the orbital ordering in the ferromagnetic Mott-insulator Lu2V2O7 by the polarized neutron diffraction technique. The orbital ordering pattern determined from the observed magnetic form factors can be explained in terms of a linear combination of wave functions |yz>, |zx> and |xy>; |0> = (1/3)^(1/2) |xy> + (1/3)^(1/2)|yz> + (1/3)^(1/2) |zx> which is proportional to |(x + y + z)^2 - r^2>; where each orbital is extended toward the center-of-mass of the V tetrahedron. We discuss the stability of the ferromagnetic Lu2V2O7, using a Hubbard Hamiltonian with these three orbitals.
The Mott insulating perovskite KCuF3 is considered the archetype of an orbitally-ordered system. By using the LDA+dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) method, we investigate the mechanism for orbital-ordering (OO) in this material. We show that the purely electronic Kugel-Khomskii super-exchange mechanism (KK) alone leads to a remarkably large transition temperature of T_KK about 350 K. However, orbital-order is experimentally believed to persist to at least 800 K. Thus Jahn-Teller distortions are essential for stabilizing orbital-order at such high temperatures.
Orbital-ordering instability arising due to the intrapocket nesting is investigated for the tight-binding models of pnictides in the presence of orbital-lattice coupling. The incommensurate instabilities with small momentum, which may play an important role in the nematic-ordering transition, vary from model to model besides being more favorable in comparison to the spin-density wave instability in the absence of good interpocket nesting. We also examine the doping dependence of such instabilities. The electron-phonon coupling parameter required to induce them are compared with the first-principle calculations.
Using first principle band structure calculations, we critically examine results of resonant x-ray scattering experiments which is believed to directly probe charge and orbital ordering. Considering the specific case of La0.5Sr1.5MnO4, we show that this technique actually probes most directly and sensitively small structural distortions in the system. Such distortions, often difficult to detect with more conventional techniques, invariably accompany and usually cause the orbital and charge orderings. In this sense, this technique is only an indirect probe of such types of ordering. Our results also provide a microscopic explanation of the novel types of charge and orbital ordering realized in this system and other doped manganites.