Pressure-driven orbital reorientation and change in Mott-Hubbard gap in YTiO3

Abstract

We investigate the crystal structure of YTiO3 at high pressures up to 30 GPa by synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction (T = 295 K). The variation of the Ti--O bond lengths with pressure evidences a distinct change in the distortion of the TiO_6 octahedra at around 10 GPa, indicating a pressure-driven spatial reorientation of the occupied Ti 3d(t_2g) orbitals. The pressure-induced reduction of the optical band gap of YTiO3 is determined quantitatively by mid-infrared synchrotron micro-spectroscopy and discussed in terms of bond length and orbital orientation changes.

arXiv comment4 pages, 6 figures

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• The role of non-local exchange in the electronic structure of correlated oxides
• Origin of the orbital and spin orderings in rare-earth titanates
• Hund excitations and the efficiency of Mott solar cells
• Magnetism and electronic structure of YTiO${}_3$ thin films
• Orthorhombic distortion drives orbital ordering in an antiferromagnetic 3$d^1$ Mott insulator