Giant atomic displacement induced by built-in strain in metastable Mn$_3$O$_4$
| Autor: | Hirai, Shigeto, Santos, Antonio M. dos, Shapiro, Maxwell C., Molaison, Jamie J., Pradhan, Neelam, Guthrie, Malcolm, Tulk, Christopher A., Fisher, Ian R., Mao, Wendy L. |
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| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: | |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| Popis: | We present x-ray, neutron scattering and heat capacity data that reveal a coupled first-order magnetic and structural phase transition of the metastable mixed-valence post-spinel compound Mn$_3$O$_4$ at 210 K. Powder neutron diffraction measurements reveal a magnetic structure in which Mn$^{3+}$ spins align antiferromagnetically along the edge-sharing \emph{a}-axis, with a magnetic propagation vector k = [1/2, 0, 0]. In contrast, the Mn$^{2+}$ spins, which are geometrically frustrated, do not order until a much lower temperature. Although the Mn$^{2+}$ spins do not directly participate in the magnetic phase transition at 210 K, structural refinements reveal a large atomic shift at this phase transition, corresponding to a physical motion of approximately 0.25 {\AA} even though the crystal symmetry remains unchanged. This "giant" response is due to the coupled effect of built-in strain in the metastable post-spinel structure with the orbital realignment of the Mn$^{3+}$ ion. Comment: Main text plus supplemental material |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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