TiPO4 is a Mott insulator and one of few inorganic compounds featuring a spin-Peierls phase at low temperature. Recent experimental studies have suggested the presence of spin-Peierls dimerization also at ambient temperature though at high pressure. Here, we present a combined experimental and theoretical study of the energetics of the high-pressure phase. We analyse dimerization properties and their coupling to spin degrees of freedom. Most importantly, we argue that TiPO4 resents a direct analogue to the celebrated binary transition metal oxide VO2. TiPO4 allows to assess spin-dimer physics in the high-pressure regime in a controlled fashion, having the potential to become an important model system representative of the class of dimerized transition metal oxides.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1912.09692,
title = {Mott and spin-Peierls physics in TiPO$_4$ under high pressure},
author = {H. Johan M. Jönsson and Marcus Ekholm and Silke Biermann and Maxim Bykov and Igor A. Abrikosov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.09692},
year = {2019}
}