Strong Competition between Orbital-ordering and Itinerancy in a Frustrated Spinel Vanadate

Published

January 26, 2015

Author(s)

J. Ma, J. H. Lee, S. E. Hahn, Tao Hong, H. B Cao, A. A. Aczel, Z. L. Dun, M. B. Stone, W. Tian, Yiming Qiu, John R. Copley, H. D. Zhou, R. S. Fishman, M. Matsuda

Abstract

The crossover from localized- to itinerant-electron behavior is associated with many intriguing phenomena such as metal-insulator transitions [1], colossal magnetoresistance [2], and superconductivity in heavy fermion [3] and Fe-based materials [4]. Likewise, the suppression of itinerancy in frustrated systems also creates various exotic phases [5]. We report the novel phase transitions driven by the competition between orbital ordering (OO) and itinerancy in the furstrated spinel system Mn_1-xCo_xV₂O₄. Although the electronic itinerancy induced by Co doping [7,8] is expected to produce paramagnetic behavior[6], neutron-scattering measurements and first-principles-guided spin wave models reveal a novel mechanism for the observed non-collinear (NC) magnetic phase. While the OO on the V³⁺ sites is melted by itinerancy, the frustration associated with the induced magnetic and structural isotropies generates a strong NC ferrimagnet. Hence, this spinel system provides new insight into the competition between OO, local anisotropy, and magnetic frustration at the boundary between localized and itinerant behaviors.

Citation

Physical Review B

Volume

91

Issue

2

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

frustrated spinel vanadate, orbital-ordering, itinerancy

Citation

Ma, J. , Lee, J. , Hahn, S. , Hong, T. , Cao, H. , Aczel, A. , Dun, Z. , Stone, M. , Tian, W. , Qiu, Y. , Copley, J. , Zhou, H. , Fishman, R. and Matsuda, M. (2015), Strong Competition between Orbital-ordering and Itinerancy in a Frustrated Spinel Vanadate, Physical Review B, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=916093 (Accessed October 18, 2025)