Spin resolved electron density study of YTiO3 in its ferromagnetic phase: signature of orbital ordering

The present work reports on the charge and spin density modelling of YTiO3 in its ferromagnetic state (TC = 27 K). Accurate polarized neutron diffraction and high-resolution X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments were carried out on a single crystal at the ORPHÉE reactor (LLB) and SPRING8 synchrotron s...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ariste Bolivard Voufack, Iurii Kibalin, Zeyin Yan, Nicolas Claiser, Saber Gueddida, Béatrice Gillon, Florence Porcher, Arsen Gukasov, Kunishisa Sugimoto, Claude Lecomte, Slimane Dahaoui, Jean-Michel Gillet, Mohamed Souhassou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: International Union of Crystallography 2019-09-01
Series:IUCrJ
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Online Access:http://scripts.iucr.org/cgi-bin/paper?S2052252519009230
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Summary:The present work reports on the charge and spin density modelling of YTiO3 in its ferromagnetic state (TC = 27 K). Accurate polarized neutron diffraction and high-resolution X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments were carried out on a single crystal at the ORPHÉE reactor (LLB) and SPRING8 synchrotron source. The experimental data are modelled by the spin resolved pseudo-atomic multipolar model (Deutsch et al., 2012). The refinement strategy is discussed and the result of this electron density modelling is compared with that from XRD measured at 100 K and with density functional theory calculations. The results show that the spin and charge densities around the Ti atom have lobes directed away from the O atoms, confirming the filling of the t2g orbitals of the Ti atom. The dxy orbital is less populated than dxz and dyz, which is a sign of a partial lift of degeneracy of the t2g orbitals. This study confirms the orbital ordering at low temperature (20 K), which is already present in the paramagnetic state above the ferromagnetic transition (100 K).
ISSN:2052-2525