Frustration-induced valence bond crystal and its melting in Mo3Sb7

Abstract

121/123Sb nuclear quadrupole resonance and muon spin relaxation experiments of Mo3Sb7 revealed symmetry breakdown to a nonmagnetic state below the transition recently found at TS=50 K. The transition is characterized by a distinct lattice dynamics suggested from narrowing of nuclear fields. We point out that the Mo sublatice is a unique three-dimensional frustrated lattice where nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic interactions compete, and propose that tetragonal distortion to release the frustration stabilizes long-range order of spin-singlet dimers, i.e., valence bond crystal, which is thermally excited to the dynamic state with cubic symmetry.

arXiv comment4 pages. submitted

References in corpus (5)

• Spin Driven Jahn-Teller Distortion in a Pyrochlore system
• Spin singlet formation in MgTi${}_2$O${}_4$: evidence of a helical dimerization pattern
• Spin-Peierls phases in pyrochlore antiferromagnets
• Valence bond crystal in a pyrochlore antiferromagnet with orbital degeneracy
• Muon-spin rotation measurements of the penetration depth of the Mo_3Sb_7 superconductor

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Spin-gap opening accompanied by a strong magnetoelastic response in the S=1 magnetic dimer system Ba3BiRu2O9
• Nonplanar ground states of frustrated antiferromagnets on an octahedral lattice
• Electron-phonon coupling and thermal transport in the thermoelectric compound $\mathrm{M}{\mathrm{o}}_3\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{b}}_{7-\mathrm{x}}\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_{\mathrm{x}}$
• Flux growth and physical properties of Mo3Sb7 single crystals
• Competition of superconductivity with the structural transition in Mo3Sb7
• Effect of the tetragonal distortion on the electronic structure, phonons and superconductivity in the Mo3Sb7 superconductor
• Fragile structural transition in Mo3Sb7