skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: X-ray scattering study of pyrochlore iridates: Crystal structure, electronic, and magnetic excitations

Journal Article · · Physical Review B
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Toronto, Toronto, ON (Canada)
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  3. Seoul National Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
  4. Univ. of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON (Canada)

We have investigated the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of the pyrochlore iridates Eu2Ir2O7 and Pr2Ir2O7 using a combination of resonant elastic x-ray scattering, x-ray powder diffraction, and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS). The structural parameters of Eu2Ir2O7 have been examined as a function of temperature and applied pressure, with a particular emphasis on regions of the phase diagram where electronic and magnetic phase transitions have been reported. We find no evidence of crystal symmetry change over the range of temperatures (~6 to 300 K) and pressures (~0.1 to 17 GPa) studied. We have also investigated the electronic and magnetic excitations in single-crystal samples of Eu2Ir2O7 and Pr2Ir2O7 using high-resolution Ir L-3-edge RIXS. In spite of very different ground state properties, we find that these materials exhibit qualitatively similar excitation spectra, with crystal field excitations at ~3-5 eV, spin-orbit excitations at ~ 0.5-1 eV, and broad low-lying excitations below ~0.15 eV. In single-crystal samples of "Eu-rich" Eu2Ir2O7 (found to possess an actual stoichiometry of Eu2.18Ir1.82O7.06) we observe highly damped magnetic excitations at ~45 meV, which display significant momentum dependence. Here, we compare these results with recent dynamical structure factor calculations

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1339452
Journal Information:
Physical Review B, Vol. 94, Issue 2; ISSN 2469-9950
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 34 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (65)

Determination of long-range all-in-all-out ordering of Ir 4 + moments in a pyrochlore iridate Eu 2 Ir 2 O 7 by resonant x-ray diffraction journal March 2013
Theory of resonant inelastic x-ray scattering in iridium oxide compounds: Probing spin-orbit-entangled ground states and excitations journal July 2011
Suppression of metal-insulator transition at high pressure and pressure-induced magnetic ordering in pyrochlore oxide Nd 2 Ir 2 O 7 journal January 2011
Weyl electrons kiss journal May 2011
Crystal-Field Splitting and Correlation Effect on the Electronic Structure of A 2 IrO 3 journal February 2013
Emergence of Magnetic Long-range Order in Frustrated Pyrochlore Nd 2 Ir 2 O 7 with Metal–Insulator Transition journal March 2012
Magnetic excitation spectra in pyrochlore iridates journal June 2013
Metal-Nonmetal Changeover in Pyrochlore Iridates journal October 2001
Correlated Quantum Phenomena in the Strong Spin-Orbit Regime journal March 2014
Dispersion of Magnetic Excitations in the Cuprate La 2 CuO 4 and CaCuO 2 Compounds Measured Using Resonant X-Ray Scattering journal April 2009
Role of spin–orbit coupling and electron correlation in the electronic structure of a 5d pyrochlore, Y2Ir2O7 journal September 2009
Magnetic Excitation Spectra of Sr 2 IrO 4 Probed by Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering: Establishing Links to Cuprate Superconductors journal April 2012
Antiferromagnetic order and domains in Sr 3 Ir 2 O 7 probed by x-ray resonant scattering journal May 2012
Metallic Spin-Liquid Behavior of the Geometrically Frustrated Kondo Lattice Pr 2 Ir 2 O 7 journal March 2006
Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering studies of elementary excitations journal June 2011
Longer-range lattice anisotropy strongly competing with spin-orbit interactions in pyrochlore iridates journal March 2014
Large trigonal-field effect on spin-orbit coupled states in a pyrochlore iridate journal September 2015
Tuning Magnetic Coupling in Sr 2 IrO 4 Thin Films with Epitaxial Strain journal April 2014
Metal–Insulator Transitions in Pyrochlore Oxides Ln 2 Ir 2 O 7 journal September 2011
Raman scattering study in iridium pyrochlore oxides journal January 2010
Topological insulators and metal-insulator transition in the pyrochlore iridates journal August 2010
Phase-Sensitive Observation of a Spin-Orbital Mott State in Sr2IrO4 journal March 2009
Dirac Fermions in Solids: From High-T c Cuprates and Graphene to Topological Insulators and Weyl Semimetals journal March 2014
Ferromagnetic Exchange Anisotropy from Antiferromagnetic Superexchange in the Mixed 3 d 5 d Transition-Metal Compound Sr 3 CuIrO 6 journal August 2013
Magnetism and magnetic order in the pyrochlore iridates in the insulator-to-metal crossover region journal December 2014
Unconventional Anomalous Hall Effect Enhanced by a Noncoplanar Spin Texture in the Frustrated Kondo Lattice Pr 2 Ir 2 O 7 journal January 2007
Large Spin-Wave Energy Gap in the Bilayer Iridate Sr 3 Ir 2 O 7 : Evidence for Enhanced Dipolar Interactions Near the Mott Metal-Insulator Transition journal October 2012
Testing the Validity of the Strong Spin-Orbit-Coupling Limit for Octahedrally Coordinated Iridate Compounds in a Model System Sr 3 CuIrO 6 journal October 2012
Continuous transition between antiferromagnetic insulator and paramagnetic metal in the pyrochlore iridate Eu 2 Ir 2 O 7 journal June 2012
Metal–Insulator Transition in Pyrochlore Iridates Ln 2 Ir 2 O 7 ( Ln = Nd, Sm, and Eu) journal April 2007
Comparative study of low-temperature x-ray diffraction experiments on R 2 Ir 2 O 7 ( R = Nd , Eu, and Pr) journal December 2014
Magnetic properties of iridium pyrochlores R 2 Ir 2 O 7 (R = Y, Sm, Eu and Lu) journal May 2001
Structure and magnetic properties of the pyrochlore iridate Y 2 Ir 2 O 7 journal June 2012
Magnetic order in the pyrochlore iridates A 2 Ir 2 O 7 ( A = Y, Yb) journal July 2012
RKKY Interactions and the Anomalous Hall Effect in Metallic Rare-Earth Pyrochlores journal November 2013
Topological and magnetic phases of interacting electrons in the pyrochlore iridates journal January 2012
Compressibility of pyrochlore-type MgZrSi 2 O 7 determined by in situ X-ray diffraction in a large-volume high pressure apparatus journal March 2013
Silicone fluid as a high‐pressure medium in diamond anvil cells journal February 1996
Time-reversal symmetry breaking and spontaneous Hall effect without magnetic dipole order journal December 2009
Quantum Melting of Spin Ice: Emergent Cooperative Quadrupole and Chirality journal July 2010
Characteristics of silicone fluid as a pressure transmitting medium in diamond anvil cells journal November 2004
Pressure-induced structural transition in Ln2Zr2O7 (Ln = Ce, Nd, Gd) pyrochlores journal May 2010
Hydrostatic limits of 11 pressure transmitting media journal March 2009
CaIrO 3 : A Spin-Orbit Mott Insulator Beyond the j eff = 1 / 2 Ground State journal April 2014
Crystal growth and structure of R2Ir2O7 (R=Pr, Eu) using molten KF journal May 2007
Magnetic transition, long-range order, and moment fluctuations in the pyrochlore iridate Eu 2 Ir 2 O 7 journal May 2011
Magnetic order and the electronic ground state in the pyrochlore iridate Nd 2 Ir 2 O 7 journal May 2012
Direct evidence for the all-in/all-out magnetic structure in the pyrochlore iridates from muon spin relaxation journal April 2014
Magnetic excitation spectrum of Na 2 IrO 3 probed with resonant inelastic x-ray scattering journal June 2013
Resonant X-ray Diffraction Study of the Strongly Spin-Orbit-Coupled Mott Insulator CaIrO 3 journal May 2013
Long-range magnetic ordering in Na 2 IrO 3 journal June 2011
Pressure-tuned insulator to metal transition in Eu 2 Ir 2 O 7 journal May 2012
Topological semimetal and Fermi-arc surface states in the electronic structure of pyrochlore iridates journal May 2011
Two-dimensional detector software: From real detector to idealised image or two-theta scan journal January 1996
Excitonic quasiparticles in a spin–orbit Mott insulator journal July 2014
Quantum Melting of Spin Ice: Emergent Cooperative Quadrupole and Chirality text January 2009
Emergence of magnetic long-range order in frustrated pyrochlore Nd$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$ with metal-insulator transition text January 2011
Magnetic excitation spectra in pyrochlore iridates text January 2012
Ferromagnetic Exchange Anisotropy from Antiferromagnetic Superexchange in the Mixed 3d-5d Transition-Metal Compound Sr3CuIrO6 text January 2013
RKKY interactions and anomalous Hall effect in metallic rare-earth pyrochlores text January 2013
Correlated quantum phenomena in the strong spin-orbit regime text January 2013
Dirac Fermions in Solids - from High Tc cuprates and Graphene to Topological Insulators and Weyl Semimetals text January 2013
Tuning Magnetic Coupling in Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ Thin Films with Epitaxial Strain text January 2013
Excitonic quasiparticles in a spin-orbit Mott insulator text January 2014
Metal-Nonmetal Changeover in Pyrochlore Iridates text January 2001

Cited By (10)

Universal geometric frustration in pyrochlores journal July 2018
Pressure-driven collapse of the relativistic electronic ground state in a honeycomb iridate journal August 2018
Unconventional spin-phonon coupling via the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction journal April 2019
Recent progress on correlated electron systems with strong spin–orbit coupling journal August 2016
Selective probing of magnetic order on Tb and Ir sites in stuffed Tb 2 Ir 2 O 7  using resonant x-ray scattering journal June 2019
Magnetic and transport properties of the pyrochlore iridates ( Y 1 x Pr x ) 2 Ir 2 O 7 : Role of f d exchange interaction and d p orbital hybridization journal February 2020
Recent progress on correlated electron systems with strong spin-orbit coupling text January 2015
Robust pinning of magnetic moments in pyrochlore iridates text January 2017
Pressure-driven collapse of the relativistic electronic ground state in a honeycomb iridate text January 2018
Selective probing of magnetic order on Tb and Ir sites in stuffed Tb$_{2+x}$Ir$_{2-x}$O$_{7-y}$ using resonant X-ray scattering text January 2019