Lattice effects in YVO3 single crystal

Abstract

In this paper we report on the lattice effects in the Mott insulator yttrium orthovanadate (YVO 3 ). Linear thermal expansion and magnetostriction experiments have been performed on a single crystal, in the temperature range from 5 K to room temperature. The YVO 3 orders antiferromagnetically at T N ¼ 116 K and orbital ordering was reported to appear below T OO ¼ 196 K. A first-order structural phase transition takes place at T S ¼ 77 K, accompanied by changes in the antiferromagnetic type of ordering as well as in the orbital-ordering type. Our results reveal that the thermal expansion measurement technique is a very powerful tool in order to clearly detect the existence of the above-mentioned transitions. The magnetostriction results point to the stability of the low-temperature-magnetic ground state under such high applied magnetic field. r

Competing orbital ordering inRVO3compounds: High-resolution x-ray diffraction and thermal expansion

“…In the case of LaVO 3 , G-type OO arises 2 K below the magnetic ordering temperature and may itself be triggered by the magnetic ordering transition. However, in the "small radius" RVO 3 compounds such as YVO 3 and HoVO 3 , the volume change at T N is negligible, 21,33 indicating that there is little or no exchange striction for small R. The difference between the orbital and magnetic ordering temperatures in these compounds is much larger than in LaVO 3 and CeVO 3 , 16 and V-O bond lengths suggest that OO is fully developed at T N . 17 Therefore, there is little further energy to be gained through a structural distortion.…”

“…As the ionic radius of R increases further, b decreases. Thermal expansion measurements of an YVO 3 single crystal 21 reveal that the onset of G-type OO gives rise to an expansion of the b lattice parameter on cooling. We find a similar trend for the compounds examined in the present study.…”

Symmetry rules and strain/order-parameter relationships for coupling between octahedral tilting and cooperative Jahn–Teller transitions in ABX 3 perovskites. II. Application

“…Although all four of these vanadate phases passed through the stability field of the monoclinic structure, values of the monoclinic angle were determined only by Ren et al (2003) for CeVO 3 . This angle is close to 90 , and no serious error is introduced into the strain calculation by assuming = 90 for Variations with temperature of lattice parameters for LuVO 3 (taken from Muñ oz et al, 2004a), YbVO 3 (Muñ oz et al, 2003a), YVO 3 (Marquina et al, 2005) and CeVO 3 (Ren et al, 2003). Linear thermal expansion data of Marquina et al (2005) for YVO 3 were converted to lattice-parameter values by calibration with the room-temperature data of Martínez-Lope et al (2008).…”

“…where a o is the reference cubic parameter extrapolated from high temperatures. If lattice parameters for the P2 1 /a setting of the monoclinic structure are used to calculate the strains, these expressions remain the same except that the a lattice parameter in (11)-(13) is replaced by asin (' a for ' 90 ) and the additional shear strains are (2003a, 2004a), Marquina et al (2005) and Ren et al (2003), respectively. The data of Marquina et al (2005) for YVO 3 were from linear thermal expansion measurements, given with respect to room temperature.…”

“…P2 1 /a transition is marked by a change in trend which is slightly non-linear in each of the four vanadates. The Né el temperatures, T N , of LuVO 3 , YbVO 3 , YVO 3 and CeVO 3 are $ 107 K (Muñ oz et al, 2004a), $ 104 K (Muñ oz et al, 2003a), $ 116 K (Marquina et al, 2005) and $ 134 K (Ren et al, 2003), respectively. Only in the case of CeVO 3 is there an obvious change in the trend of symmetry-breaking strains at T N .…”