Pressure-induced Spin-Peierls to Incommensurate Charge-Density-Wave Transition in the Ground State of TiOCl

The ground state of the spin-Peierls system TiOCl was probed using synchrotron x-ray diffraction on a single-crystal sample at T = 6 K. We tracked the evolution of the structural superlattice peaks associated with the dimerized ground state as a function of pressure. The dimerization along the b axi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Prodi, A, Helton, J S, Feng, Yejun, Lee, Y S
Format Paper Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 04.08.2009
Subjects
Charge density waves
Diffraction
Dimerization
Ground state
Phase transitions
Physics - Strongly Correlated Electrons
Single crystals
Superlattices
Synchrotron radiation
X-ray diffraction
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Summary:The ground state of the spin-Peierls system TiOCl was probed using synchrotron x-ray diffraction on a single-crystal sample at T = 6 K. We tracked the evolution of the structural superlattice peaks associated with the dimerized ground state as a function of pressure. The dimerization along the b axis is rapidly suppressed in the vicinity of a first-order structural phase transition at Pc = 13.1(1) GPa. The high-pressure phase is characterized by an incommensurate charge density wave perpendicular to the original spin chain direction. These results show that the electronic ground state undergoes a fundamental change in symmetry, indicating a significant change in the principal interactions.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.0908.0518