Spin - Phonon Coupling in Nickel Oxide Determined from Ultraviolet Raman Spectroscopy

Abstract

Nickel oxide (NiO) has been studied extensively for various applications ranging from electrochemistry to solar cells [1,2]. In recent years, NiO attracted much attention as an antiferromagnetic (AF) insulator material for spintronic devices [3-10]. Understanding the spin - phonon coupling in NiO is a key to its functionalization, and enabling AF spintronics' promise of ultra-high-speed and low-power dissipation [11,12]. However, despite its status as an exemplary AF insulator and a benchmark material for the study of correlated electron systems, little is known about the spin - phonon interaction, and the associated energy dissipation channel, in NiO. In addition, there is a long-standing controversy over the large discrepancies between the experimental and theoretical values for the electron, phonon, and magnon energies in NiO [13-23]. This gap in knowledge is explained by NiO optical selection rules, high Neel temperature and dominance of the magnon band in the visible Raman spectrum, which precludes a conventional approach for investigating such interaction. Here we show that by using ultraviolet (UV) Raman spectroscopy one can extract the spin - phonon coupling coefficients in NiO. We established that unlike in other materials, the spins of Ni atoms interact more strongly with the longitudinal optical (LO) phonons than with the transverse optical (TO) phonons, and produce opposite effects on the phonon energies. The peculiarities of the spin - phonon coupling are consistent with the trends given by density functional theory calculations. The obtained results shed light on the nature of the spin - phonon coupling in AF insulators and may help in developing innovative spintronic devices.

16 pages; 2 figures

References in corpus (11)

• Antiferromagnetic spintronics
• An effective magnetic field from optically driven phonons
• Enhancement of Thermally Injected Spin Current through an Antiferromagnetic Insulator
• Spin Oscillations in Antiferromagnetic NiO Triggered by Circularly Polarized Light
• Probing spin correlations with phonons in the strongly frustrated magnet ZnCr2O4
• Ultrafast optical excitation of coherent magnons in antiferromagnetic NiO
• Resonant two-magnon Raman scattering in parent compounds of high-T${}_c$ superconductors.
• Giant spin-phonon-electronic coupling in a 5d oxide
• Inelastic Light Scattering Spectroscopy of Magnons and Phonons in Nickel Oxide: Effects of Temperature
• The role of electronic correlations on the phonon modes of MnO and NiO
• Photoemission Spectra from Reduced Density Matrices: the Band Gap in Strongly Correlated Systems

Cited by in corpus (26)

• Phono-magnetic analogs to opto-magnetic effects
• Direct imaging of current-induced antiferromagnetic switching revealing a pure thermomagnetoelastic switching mechanism
• General method for atomistic spin-lattice dynamics with first principles accuracy
• First-principles studies of spin-phonon coupling in Cr2Ge2Te6 monolayer
• Signatures of magnetostriction and spin-phonon coupling in magnetoelectric hexagonal 15R-BaMnO3
• Specifics of the Elemental Excitations in "True One-Dimensional" MoI${}_3$ van der Waals Nanowires
• Structural, optical, and electrical properties of unintentionally doped NiO layers grown on MgO by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy
• Magnetic characteristics of epitaxial NiO films studied by Raman spectroscopy
• Electronic correlations at paramagnetic $(001)$ and $(110)$ NiO surfaces: Charge-transfer and Mott-Hubbard-type gaps at the surface and subsurface of $(110)$ NiO
• Exchange-striction driven ultrafast nonthermal lattice dynamics in NiO
• Spin-Phonon Interaction in Yttrium Iron Garnet
• Strain-induced Shape Anisotropy in Antiferromagnetic Structures
• Dielectric properties of strained NiO thin films
• Dynamical properties of magnetic topological insulator $T$Bi${}_2$Te${}_4$ ($T=$Mn, Fe): phonons dispersion, Raman active modes, and chiral phonons study
• Density Functional description of spin, lattice, and spin-lattice dynamics in antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases at finite temperatures
• Spin-phonon coupling in Sr and Ti incorporated 9R-BaMnO3
• Spin-phonon interactions and magnetoelectric coupling in Co${}_4$$B_2$O${}_9$ ($B$ = Nb, Ta)
• Laser-induced Creation of antiferromagnetic 180-degree domains in NiO/Pt bilayers
• Neutron Scattering Signature of Phonon Renormalization in Nickel (II) Oxide
• DFT-Guided Operando Raman Characterization of Ni-Based Phases Relevant to Electrochemical Systems
• Identifiying the domain wall spin structure in current-induced switching of antiferromagnetic NiO/Pt
• Investigation of spin-phonon coupling and local magnetic properties in magnetoelectric Fe2TeO6
• Lattice dynamics and spin-phonon interaction in strained NiO films
• Engineering crystal structure and spin-phonon coupling in Ba1-xSrxMnO3
• Brillouin-Mandelstam Light Scattering Spectroscopy: Applications in Phononics and Spintronics
• Strain controlled superconductivity in few-layer NbSe2