Bond ordering and molecular spin-orbital fluctuations in the cluster Mott insulator
Abstract
For materials where spin-orbit coupling is competitive with electronic correlations, the spatially anisotropic spin-orbital wave functions can stabilize degenerate states that lead to many and diverse quantum phases of matter. Here we find evidence for a dynamical spin-orbital state preceding a T* = 50 K order-disorder spin-orbital ordering transition in the j = 3/2 lacunar spinel GaTa4Se8. Above T*, GaTa4Se8 has an average cubic crystal structure, but total scattering measurements indicate local noncubic distortions of Ta4 tetrahedral clusters for all measured temperatures 2 < T < 300 K. Inelastic neutron-scattering measurements reveal the dynamic nature of these local distortions through symmetry forbidden optical phonon modes that modulate j = 3/2 molecular orbital occupation as well as intercluster Ta-Se bonds. Spin-orbital ordering at T* cannot be attributed to a classic Jahn-Teller mechanism and, based on our findings, we propose that intercluster interactions acting on the scale of T* act to break global symmetry. The resulting staggered intercluster dimerization pattern doubles the unit cell, reflecting a spin-orbital valence bond ground state.
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1880882
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1884516; OSTI ID: 1922727; OSTI ID: 1997813
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-223952-2023-JAAM
Journal ID: ISSN 2643-1564; PPRHAI; 033123
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0021223; SC0019331; AC02-06CH11357; SC0012704; AC05-00OR22725
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review Research
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Physical Review Research Journal Volume: 4 Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 2643-1564
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Jahn-Teller effect; orbital order; spin-orbit coupling; neutron pair-distribution function analysis; neutron scattering; x-ray pair-distribution function analysis
Citation Formats
Yang, Tsung-Han, Kawamoto, S., Higo, Tomoya, Wang, SuYin Grass, Stone, M. B., Neuefeind, Joerg, Ruff, Jacob P. C., Abeykoon, A. M. Milinda, Chen, Yu-Sheng, Nakatsuji, S., and Plumb, K. W. Bond ordering and molecular spin-orbital fluctuations in the cluster Mott insulator GaTa 4 Se 8. United States: N. p., 2022.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.033123.
Yang, Tsung-Han, Kawamoto, S., Higo, Tomoya, Wang, SuYin Grass, Stone, M. B., Neuefeind, Joerg, Ruff, Jacob P. C., Abeykoon, A. M. Milinda, Chen, Yu-Sheng, Nakatsuji, S., & Plumb, K. W. Bond ordering and molecular spin-orbital fluctuations in the cluster Mott insulator GaTa 4 Se 8. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.033123
Yang, Tsung-Han, Kawamoto, S., Higo, Tomoya, Wang, SuYin Grass, Stone, M. B., Neuefeind, Joerg, Ruff, Jacob P. C., Abeykoon, A. M. Milinda, Chen, Yu-Sheng, Nakatsuji, S., and Plumb, K. W. Thu .
"Bond ordering and molecular spin-orbital fluctuations in the cluster Mott insulator GaTa 4 Se 8". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.033123.
@article{osti_1880882,
title = {Bond ordering and molecular spin-orbital fluctuations in the cluster Mott insulator GaTa 4 Se 8},
author = {Yang, Tsung-Han and Kawamoto, S. and Higo, Tomoya and Wang, SuYin Grass and Stone, M. B. and Neuefeind, Joerg and Ruff, Jacob P. C. and Abeykoon, A. M. Milinda and Chen, Yu-Sheng and Nakatsuji, S. and Plumb, K. W.},
abstractNote = {For materials where spin-orbit coupling is competitive with electronic correlations, the spatially anisotropic spin-orbital wave functions can stabilize degenerate states that lead to many and diverse quantum phases of matter. Here we find evidence for a dynamical spin-orbital state preceding a T* = 50 K order-disorder spin-orbital ordering transition in the j = 3/2 lacunar spinel GaTa4Se8. Above T*, GaTa4Se8 has an average cubic crystal structure, but total scattering measurements indicate local noncubic distortions of Ta4 tetrahedral clusters for all measured temperatures 2 < T < 300 K. Inelastic neutron-scattering measurements reveal the dynamic nature of these local distortions through symmetry forbidden optical phonon modes that modulate j = 3/2 molecular orbital occupation as well as intercluster Ta-Se bonds. Spin-orbital ordering at T* cannot be attributed to a classic Jahn-Teller mechanism and, based on our findings, we propose that intercluster interactions acting on the scale of T* act to break global symmetry. The resulting staggered intercluster dimerization pattern doubles the unit cell, reflecting a spin-orbital valence bond ground state.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.033123},
journal = {Physical Review Research},
number = 3,
volume = 4,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Aug 11 00:00:00 EDT 2022},
month = {Thu Aug 11 00:00:00 EDT 2022}
}
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.033123
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