Negative thermal expansion near two structural quantum phase transitions

Abstract

Recent experimental work has revealed that the unusually strong, isotropic structural negative thermal expansion in cubic perovskite ionic insulator ScF3 occurs in excited states above a ground state tuned very near a structural quantum phase transition, posing a question of fundamental interest as to whether this special circumstance is related to the anomalous behavior. To test this hypothesis, we report an elastic and inelastic X-ray scattering study of a second system Hg2I2 also tuned near a structural quantum phase transition while retaining stoichiometric composition and high crystallinity. We find similar behavior and significant negative thermal expansion below 100K for dimensions along the body-centered-tetragonal c axis, bolstering the connection between negative thermal expansion and zero temperature structural transitions. We identify the common traits between these systems and propose a set of materials design principles that can guide discovery of new materials exhibiting negative thermal expansion.

8 pages, 4 figures, accepted, Phys. Rev. Mat. 2017, 8 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (11)

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• Quantum critical origin of the superconducting dome in SrTiO${}_3$
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• Candidate Elastic Quantum Critical Point in LaCu${}_{6-x}$Au${}_x$

Cited by in corpus (6)

• First-principles study of phonon anharmonicity and negative thermal expansion in ScF3
• Quantum ferroelectric instabilities in superconducting SrTiO${}_3$
• Kondo-induced giant isotropic negative thermal expansion
• Negative thermal expansion near the precipice of structural stability in open perovskites
• Effect of Hydration and Ammonization on the Thermal Expansion Behaviour of ZrW2O8: Ab-initio Lattice Dynamical Perspective
• 1D fluids with repulsive nearest-neighbour interactions: Low-temperature anomalies