Magneto-synthesis effect on magnetic order, phonons, and magnons in single-crystal Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$

Abstract

It was shown earlier that applying a magnetic field during the growth of Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$, also known as "field-alteration", induces significant changes to its structural, magnetic, and transport properties. However, the microscopic nature of these changes is enigmatic. In this study, we employed resonant elastic and inelastic x-ray scattering, as well as Raman scattering, to investigate samples from two batches of Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$ grown in magnetic fields of different strengths. Our findings reveal that samples grown in a weaker magnetic field have similar magnetic order to non-altered samples, whereas those grown in a stronger field show a different stacking of weak in-plane ferromagnetic moments. Additionally, we observed significant softening and broadening of select Raman-active phonons in the field altered samples, with a stronger effect in the samples grown in the stronger field. We discuss insights that our results provide into the microscopic nature of field-alteration in Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$.

References in corpus (3)

• Mott Insulators in the Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling Limit: From Heisenberg to a Quantum Compass and Kitaev Models
• Spin-orbit tuned metal-insulator transitions in single-crystal Sr2Ir1-xRhxO4 (0\leqx\leq1)
• Raman scattering study of vibrational and magnetic excitations in Sr${}_{2-x}$La${}_x$IrO${}_4$

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Magnetosynthesis effect on the structure and ground state of Cu${}^{2+}$-based antiferromagnets
• High-pressure floating zone crystal growth of Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$