Large isotropic negative thermal expansion above a structural quantum phase transition

Abstract

Perovskite structured materials contain myriad tunable ordered phases of electronic and magnetic origin with proven technological importance and strong promise for a variety of energy solutions. An always-contributing influence beneath these cooperative and competing interactions is the lattice, whose physics may be obscured in complex perovskites by the many coupled degrees of freedom which makes these systems interesting. Here we report signatures of an approach to a quantum phase transition very near the ground state of the nonmagnetic, ionic insulating, simple cubic perovskite material ScF3 and show that its physical properties are strongly effected as much as 100 K above the putative transition. Spatial and temporal correlations in the high-symmetry cubic phase determined using energy- and momentum-resolved inelastic X-ray scattering as well as X-ray diffraction reveal that soft mode, central peak and thermal expansion phenomena are all strongly influenced by the transition.

6 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Quantum criticality in ferroelectrics
• The role of static disorder in negative thermal expansion in ReO3
• Structural Phase Transitions
• Noncontact dissipation reveals critical central peak in SrTiO3
• Octahedral Tilt Instability of ReO_3-type Crystals

Cited by in corpus (22)

• First-principles study of phonon anharmonicity and negative thermal expansion in ScF3
• Anomalous thermal conductivity and suppression of negative thermal expansion in ScF3
• Entropic elasticity and negative thermal expansion in a simple cubic crystal
• Quantitative understanding of negative thermal expansion in scandium trifluoride from neutron total scattering measurements
• Negative Thermal Expansion Behaviour in MZrF6 (M=Ca, Mg, Sr): Ab-initio Lattice Dynamical Studies
• Colossal pressure-induced softening in scandium fluoride
• Quantum ferroelectric instabilities in superconducting SrTiO${}_3$
• Evidence of a structural quantum critical point in (Ca${}_x$Sr${}_{1-x}$)${}_3$Rh${}_4$Sn${}_{13}$ from a lattice dynamics study
• Anharmonicity and scissoring modes in the negative thermal expansion materials ScF${}_3$ and CaZrF${}_6$
• Quantum Annealed Criticality
• Negative thermal expansion near two structural quantum phase transitions
• Negative thermal expansion near the precipice of structural stability in open perovskites
• Landau theory and giant room-temperature barocaloric effect in MF${}_3$ metal trifluorides
• Candidate Elastic Quantum Critical Point in LaCu${}_{6-x}$Au${}_x$
• Quantum Annealed Criticality: A Scaling Description
• Giant Grüneisen parameter in a strain-tuned superconducting quantum paraelectric: A consequence of the vanishing ferroelectric phonon energy
• Empty perovskites as Coulomb floppy networks: entropic elasticity and negative thermal expansion
• Tuning the structural and antiferromagnetic phase transitions in UCr${}_2$Si${}_2$: hydrostatic pressure and chemical substitution
• Phonons and Anomalous Thermal Expansion Behaviour in Crystalline Solids
• LaCu${}_{6-x}$Ag${}_x$: A promising host of an elastic quantum critical point
• Strain-engineered interaction of quantum polar and superconducting phases
• Large Kohn anomaly and phonon collapse induced by charge density wave in UPt${}_2$Si${}_2$