Shift of close-packed basal planes as an order parameter of transitions between antiferromangetic phases in solid oxygen: II. Temperature/pressure dependence of sound velocities and lattice parameters

Abstract

In the present paper we generalised a phenomenological model developed in \cite{gomo:2005} for the description of magnetostructural phase transitions and related peculiarities of elastic properties in solid oxygen under high pressure and/or low (below 40 K) temperature. We show that variation of all the lattice parameters in the vicinity of $\alpha \beta$-phase transition is due to both the shift of basal closed packed planes and appearance of the long-range magnetic order. Competition between these two factors from one side and lattice compression below $T_{\alpha \beta }$ from another produces non monotonic temperature dependence of lattice parameter $b$ (along monoclinic axis). Steep decrease of the sound velocities in the vicinity of $T_{\alpha \beta }$ can be explained by the softening of the lattice with respect to shift of the close-packed planes (described by the constant $K_2$) prior to phase transition point. We anticipate an analogous softening of sound velocities in the vicinity of $\alpha \delta$-phase transition and non monotonic pressure dependence of sound velocities in $\alpha$-phase.

11 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Low Temperature Physics, v.33, N6, 2007, materails presented at the Conference CC-2006, Kharkov, 2006