Short-Range Correlations in Magnetite above the Verwey Temperature

Physical Review X

Alexey Bosak⁶  Dmitry Chernyshov²  Moritz Hoesch⁷  Przemysław Piekarz⁴  Mathieu Le Tacon⁵  Michael Krisch⁶  Andrzej Kozłowski¹  Andrzej M. Oleś³  Krzysztof Parlinski⁴ 

[1] Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH-University of Science and Technology, Aleja Mickiewicza 30, PL-30059 Kraków, Poland

[2] Swiss-Norwegian Beam Lines at ESRF, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex, France

[3] Marian Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagellonian University, Reymonta 4, PL-30059 Kraków, Poland

[4] Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Radzikowskiego 152, PL-31342 Kraków, Poland

[5] Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Heisenbergstrasse 1, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany

[6] European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex, France

[7] Diamond Light Source, Harwell Campus, Didcot OX11 0DE, Oxfordshire, England

Others  :  974596
DOI  :  http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.4.011040

实施日期：2013-11-20，发布日期：2014-03-17

【 摘 要 】

Magnetite, ${\mathrm{Fe}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_4$, is the first magnetic material discovered and utilized by mankind in Ancient Greece, yet it still attracts attention due to its puzzling properties. This is largely due to the quest for a full and coherent understanding of the Verwey transition that occurs at $T_V=124\mathrm{K}$ and is associated with a drop of electric conductivity and a complex structural phase transition. A recent detailed analysis of the structure, based on single crystal diffraction, suggests that the electron localization pattern contains linear three-Fe-site units, the so-called trimerons. Here, we show that whatever the electron localization pattern is, it partially survives up to room temperature as short-range correlations in the high-temperature cubic phase, easily discernible by diffuse scattering. Additionally, ab initio electronic structure calculations reveal that characteristic features in these diffuse scattering patterns can be correlated with the Fermi surface topology.

【 授权许可】

   
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical Society