Publication Date
11-1-2019
Department
Ames Laboratory; Physics and Astronomy
Campus Units
Physics and Astronomy, Ames Laboratory
OSTI ID+
1607282
Report Number
IS-J 10104
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevB.100.184423
Journal Title
Physical Review B
Volume Number
100
Issue Number
18
First Page
184423
Abstract
We report a thorough study of Y0.7La0.3VO3 single crystals by measuring magnetic properties, specific heat, thermal conductivity, Raman scattering, x-ray and neutron diffraction with the motivation of revealing the lattice response to the spin-orbital entanglement in RVO3. Upon cooling from room temperature, the orbitally disordered paramagnetic state changes around T∗∼220 K to a spin-orbital entangled state which is then followed by a transition at TN = 116 K to C-type orbital-ordered (OO) and G-type antiferromagnetic ordered (AF) ground state. In the temperature interval TNyz/zxorbitals. However, this distortion is incompatible with the steric octahedral site distortion intrinsic to orthorhombic perovskites. Their competition induces a second-order transition from the spin-orbital entangled state to a C-OO/G-AF ground state where the long-range OO suppresses the spin-orbital entanglement. Our analysis suggests that the spin-orbital entangled state and G-OO are comparable in energy and compete with each other. Rare-earth site disorder favors the spin-orbital entanglement rather than a cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion. The results also indicate for LaVO3 a C-OO/G-AF state in Tt ≤ T ≤TN and an orbital flipping transition at Tt.
DOE Contract Number(s)
AC05-00OR22725
Language
en
Publisher
Iowa State University Digital Repository, Ames IA (United States)