Devil's Stairs and the Commensurate-Commensurate Transitions in CeSb

Boehm, J. von; Bak, Per

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.42.122

Cited by 207 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(5 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Shortening of Te-Te bonding distance along one direction reduces the crystallographic symmetry, increasing the overlap of Te p orbitals. We note that STM/S studies of the commensurate phase at 4.2 K. Generally, a periodic structure can gain 'umklapp' energy by locking into phases that are commensurate with the lattice, that is, the wave vector is a rational fraction of the reciprocal lattice vectors [23][24][25] . This may be the case when the distortions are large as they are in the LT phase of IrTe 2 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Bond competition and phase evolution on the IrTe2 surface

Lin

Yan

et al. 2014

Nat Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Compounds with incommensurate structural modulations have been extensively studied in last several decades. However, the relationship between structurally incommensurate/ commensurate phases and associated electronic states remains enigmatic. Here we report the coexisting of complex incommensurate structures and highly unusual electronic roughness on the surface of in situ cleaved IrTe 2 by using scanning tunnelling microscopy/ spectroscopy, corroborated with extensive density-functional theory calculations. This behaviour is traced to structural instability, which induces a structural transition from a trigonal to a triclinic lattice below transition temperature, giving rise to the formation of unidirectional structural modulations with distinct wavelengths, accompanied by the opening of a 'pseudo'-gap in the surface layer. With further cooling the surface adopts a structure that reflects an B6 Â periodicity that is different from the bulk 5 Â periodicity. Calculations show that the structure distortion is not associated with a charge density wave, but is rather associated with Te p-electron bonding.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Bond competition and phase evolution on the IrTe2 surface

Lin

Yan

et al. 2014

Nat Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The resulting onedimensional character of the stacking suggests the description of the polytypes in a one-dimensional Ising-type model, the ANNNI (axial next-nearest-neighbor Ising) model [53]. In this model, each bilayer i is characterized by a spin variable σ i = ±1 according to the orientation of the bonding tetrahedra.…”

Section: Stacking-fault Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The total energy of the system can be described by parameters J j as the interaction energies of two bilayers. The three interaction parameters J 1 , J 2 , and J 3 are deduced from the relative total energies of E(2H), E(4H), and E(6H) with respect to the 3C phase [46,53]. This has been widely demonstrated for IV-IV materials [47,48,[54][55][56][57], but also for III-V compounds [46,58].…”

Section: Stacking-fault Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polytypism in ZnS, ZnSe, and ZnTe: First-principles study

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…21 The magnetization plateaus and the complex phase diagram are explained by considering long-range interactions resulting in the periodic stacking of alternating ferromagnetic planes, which are successively aligned along the external field with increasing field. 21,24 A relatively transparent model to arrive at a complex magnetic phase diagram is the ANNNI model considered theoretically by Bak and von Boehm [25][26][27] as well as Fisher and Selke. 28,29 The ANNNI model can explain the complex phase diagram of CeSb with many incommensurate phases nicknamed "devil's staircase."…”

Section: Phase Diagram and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetic phase diagram of CeAu2Ge2: High magnetic anisotropy due to crystal electric field

et al. 2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

CeAu 2 Ge 2 single crystals (with tetragonal ThCr 2 Si 2 structure) have been grown in Au-Ge flux (AGF) as well as in Sn flux (SF). X-ray powder diffraction and EDX measurements indicate that in the latter case, Sn atoms from the flux are incorporated in the samples, leading to a decrease of the lattice constants by ≈0.3% compared to AGF samples. For both types of samples, a strong anisotropy of the magnetization M for the magnetic field B parallel and perpendicular to the c direction is observed with M || /M ⊥ ≈ 6-7 in low fields just above 10 K. This anisotropy is preserved to high fields and temperatures and can be quantitatively explained by crystal electric field effects. Antiferromagnetic ordering sets in around 10 K as previously found for polycrystalline samples. From the magnetization data of our single crystals we obtain the phase diagrams for the AGF and SF samples. The magnetic properties depend strongly on the flux employed. While the AGF samples exhibit a complex behavior indicative of several magnetic transitions, the SF samples adopt a simpler antiferromagnetic structure with a single spin-flop transition. This effect of a more ordered state induced by disorder in form of Sn impurities is qualitatively explained within the anisotropic next-nearest neighbor Ising (ANNNI) model, which assumes ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions in agreement with the magnetic structure previously inferred from neutron-scattering experiments on polycrystalline CeAu 2 Ge 2 by Loidl et al. [Phys. Rev. B 46, 9341 (1992)].

show abstract

Devil's Stairs and the Commensurate-Commensurate Transitions in CeSb

Abstract: We have analyzed a simple model of a periodically modulated magnetic system. The phase diagram includes multiple phase transitions between commensurate phases, similar to those observed in CeSb. We argue that our model, and CeSb, are possible candidates for the "devil's stairs" behavior.

Cited by 207 publications

References 8 publications

Bond competition and phase evolution on the IrTe2 surface

Bond competition and phase evolution on the IrTe2 surface

Polytypism in ZnS, ZnSe, and ZnTe: First-principles study

Magnetic phase diagram of CeAu2Ge2: High magnetic anisotropy due to crystal electric field

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About