2016/10/20 by Q. Cui, Qi Cui, Jinguang Cheng +31 · 1 citation
Chemistry · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Antiferromagnetism #Brillouin zone #Chemistry #Condensed matter physics #Crystal structure #Crystallography #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Magnetism #Materials science #Metal #Metal–insulator transition #Neutron diffraction #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Spin–orbit interaction #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.117.176603
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 176603 (2016) · 15 pages, 4 figures
openalex publication_date 2016/10/20 · arxiv created 2017/10/04 · arxiv updated 2017/10/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The perovskite SrIrO3 is an exotic narrow-band metal owing to a confluence of the strengths of the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and the electron-electron correlations. It has been proposed that topological and magnetic insulating phases can be achieved by tuning the SOC, Hubbard interactions, and/or lattice symmetry. Here, we report that the substitution of nonmagnetic, isovalent Sn4+ for Ir4+ in the SrIr1-xSnxO3 perovskites synthesized under high pressure leads to a metal-insulator transition to an antiferromagnetic (AF) phase at TN≥225 K. The continuous change of the cell volume as detected by x-ray diffraction and the λ-shape transition of the specific heat on cooling through TN demonstrate that the metal-insulator transition is of second order. Neutron powder diffraction results indicate that the Sn substitution enlarges an octahedral-site distortion that reduces the SOC relative to the spin-spin exchange interaction and results in the type-G AF spin ordering below TN. Measurement of high-temperature magnetic susceptibility shows the evolution of magnetic coupling in the paramagnetic phase typical of weak itinerant-electron magnetism in the Sn-substituted samples. A reduced structural symmetry in the magnetically ordered phase leads to an electron gap opening at the Brillouin zone boundary below TN in the same way as proposed by Slater.