Spin Quenching Assisted by a Strongly Anisotropic Compression Behavior in MnP
Abstract
We studied the crystal structure and spin state of MnP under high pressure with synchrotron X-ray diffraction and X-ray emission spectroscopy. MnP has an exceedingly strong anisotropy in compressibility, with the primary compressible direction along the b axis of the Pnma structure. X-ray emission spectroscopy reveals a pressure-driven quenching of the spin state in MnP. Firstprinciples calculations suggest that the strongly anisotropic compression behavior significantly enhances the dispersion of the Mn d-orbitals and the splitting of the d orbital levels compared to the hypothetical isotropic compression behavior. Thus, we propose spin quenching results mainly from the significant enhancement of the itinerancy of d electrons and partly from spin rearrangement occurring in the split d-orbital levels near the Fermi level. This explains the fast suppression of magnetic ordering in MnP under high pressure. The spin quenching lags behind the occurrence of superconductivity at ~8 GPa implying that spin fluctuations govern the electron pairing for superconductivity.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1712.08073,
title = {Spin Quenching Assisted by a Strongly Anisotropic Compression Behavior in MnP},
author = {Fei Han and Di Wang and Yonggang Wang and Nana Li and Jin-Ke Bao and Bing Li and Antia S. Botana and Yuming Xiao and Paul Chow and Duck Young Chung and Jiuhua Chen and Mercouri G. Kanatzidis and Xiangang Wan and Wenge Yang and Ho-Kwang Mao},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1712.08073},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
17 pages, 6 figures, accepted by New Journal of Physics