Low temperature structural phase transition and incommensurate lattice modulation in the spin gap compound BaCuSi2O6

E. C. Samulon; Z. Islam; S. E. Sebastian; P. B. Brooks; M. K. McCourt; J. Ilavsky; I. R. Fisher

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.73.100407

Low temperature structural phase transition and incommensurate lattice modulation in the spin gap compound BaCuSi2O6

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2009-11-11 v1

Authors: E. C. Samulon , Z. Islam , S. E. Sebastian , P. B. Brooks , M. K. McCourt , J. Ilavsky , I. R. Fisher

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Abstract

Results of high resolution x-ray diffraction experiments are presented for single crystals of the spin gap compound BaCuSi $_2$ O $_6$ in the temperature range from 16 to 300 K. The data show clear evidence of a transition from the room temperature tetragonal phase into an incommensurately modulated orthorhombic structure below $\sim$ 100 K. This lattice modulation is characterized by a resolution limited wave vector {\bf q} $_{IC}$ =(0, $\sim$ 0.13,0) and its 2 $^{nd}$ and 3 $^{rd}$ harmonics. The phase transition is first order and exhibits considerable hysteresis. This observation implies that the spin Hamiltonian representing the system is more complex than originally thought.

Keywords

structural phase transition incommensurate lattice modulation spin gap compound BaCuSi2O6 x-ray diffraction

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0512560,
  title  = {Low temperature structural phase transition and incommensurate lattice modulation in the spin gap compound BaCuSi2O6},
  author = {E. C. Samulon and Z. Islam and S. E. Sebastian and P. B. Brooks and M. K. McCourt and J. Ilavsky and I. R. Fisher},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0512560},
  year   = {2009}
}

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4 pages, 4 figures

Low temperature structural phase transition and incommensurate lattice modulation in the spin gap compound BaCuSi2O6

Abstract

Keywords

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