Hidden Charge Order in an Iron Oxide Square-Lattice Compound

Abstract

Since the discovery of charge disproportionation in the FeO${}_2$ square-lattice compound Sr${}_3$Fe${}_2$O${}_7$ by Mössbauer spectroscopy more than fifty years ago, the spatial ordering pattern of the disproportionated charges has remained "hidden" to conventional diffraction probes, despite numerous x-ray and neutron scattering studies. We have used neutron Larmor diffraction and Fe K-edge resonant x-ray scattering to demonstrate checkerboard charge order in the FeO${}_2$ planes that vanishes at a sharp second-order phase transition upon heating above 332 K. Stacking disorder of the checkerboard pattern due to frustrated interlayer interactions broadens the corresponding superstructure reflections and greatly reduces their amplitude, thus explaining the difficulty to detect them by conventional probes. We discuss implications of these findings for research on "hidden order" in other materials.

PRL in press, 12 pages including Supplementary, CIF files available as ancillary files

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• Formation of a Nematic Fluid at High Fields in Sr3Ru2O7
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Cited by in corpus (1)

• Rich Magnetic Phase Diagram of Putative Helimagnet Sr${}_3$Fe${}_2$O${}_7$