Signatures of Orbital Order and Disorder in Fluoro-Perovskites with $t_{2g}$ Electronic Degeneracies

Abstract

A detailed high-resolution, variable temperature powder diffraction study of the fluoro-perovskites NaFeF${}_3$ and NaCoF${}_3$ is performed to probe their orbital ordering transitions. Through analysis of the symmetry adapted macrostrains and atomic distortions, we show that NaFeF${}_3$ undergoes a C-type orbital order transition associated with the $t_{2g}^4$ states of Fe${}^{2+}$. Counter-intuitively, the phase transition leading to the orbital order appears second order-like, which contradicts the thermodynamic requirements for electronic and isosymmeric phase transitions, implying that there must be an associated hidden symmetry breaking. On the other hand, for NaCoF${}_3$, consideration of the symmetry adapted strains allows us to confidently rule out the occurrence of any long-range orbital orders down to 4 K. Since NaCoF${}_3$ is an insulator with quenched orbital angular momentum at this temperature, our findings point towards a novel kind of orbital disorder associated to the $t_{2g}^5$ electronic degeneracy.

8 pages, 5 figures