Jahn-Teller induced nematic orbital order in tetragonal Sr${}_2$VO${}_4$

Abstract

Using high resolution X-Ray diffraction (XRD) on high purity powders, we resolved the structure and $ab$ symmetry of the intriguing compound \svo from room temperature down to 20 K to an unprecedented level of accuracy. Upon cooling, this new set of data unambiguously reveals a second order phase transition lowering the symmetry from tetragonal to orthorhombic at a temperature $T_{c2}=136$ K. The observation of an orthorhombic distortion of the $ab$-plane is attributed to nematic phase formation supported by local Jahn-Teller (JT) dynamical instability. At $T_N=105$ K, spins order and at $T_{c1}=100$ K the tetragonal structure is recovered with an elongated c-axis.

4 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Nematic order in iron superconductors - who is in the driver's seat?
• Electronic Structure of Strongly Correlated Systems Emerging from Combining Path-Integral Renormalization Group with Density Functional Approach
• Magnetically Hidden Order of Kramers Doublets in $d^1$ Systems: Sr${}_2$VO${}_4$
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