Pressure enhanced interplay among lattice, spin and charge in La2FeMnO6 mixed perovskite

TL;DR

This study reveals how high pressure induces coupled spin and valence transitions in La2FeMnO6, affecting its structural, magnetic, and electronic properties, with potential for material optimization.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive high-pressure analysis of a mixed Fe-Mn perovskite, highlighting coupled spin, charge, and orbital transitions and their effects on material properties.

Findings

Pressure induces coupled spin and valence transitions in Fe and Mn.

Lattice collapse occurs between offset spin transitions.

La2FeMnO6 remains semiconducting up to 144.5 GPa, with significant resistivity reduction.

Abstract

Spin crossover plays a central role in the structural instability, net magnetic moment modification, metallization, and even in superconductivity in corresponding materials. Most reports on the pressure-induced spin crossover with a large volume collapse so far focused on compounds with single transition metal. Here we report a comprehensive high-pressure investigation of a mixed Fe-Mn perovskite La2FeMnO6. Under pressure, the strong coupling between Fe and Mn leads to a combined valence/spin transition: Fe3+(S = 5/2) to Fe2+(S = 0) and Mn3+(S = 2) to Mn4+(S = 3/2), with an isostructural phase transition. The spin transitions of both Fe and Mn are offset by ~ 20 GPa of the onset pressure, and the lattice collapse occurs in between. Interestingly, Fe3+ ion shows an abnormal behavior when it reaches a lower valence state (Fe2+) accompanied by a + 0.5 eV energy shift in Fe K-absorption edge at 15 GPa. This process is associated with the charge-spin-orbital state transition from high spin Fe3+ to low spin Fe2+, caused by the significantly enhanced t2g-eg crystal field splitting in the compressed lattice under high pressure. Density Functional Theory calculations confirm the energy preference of the high-pressure state with charge redistribution accompanied by spin state transition of Fe ions. Moreover, La2FeMnO6 maintains semiconductor behaviors even when the pressure reached 144.5 GPa as evidenced by the electrical transport measurements, despite the huge resistivity decreasing 7 orders of magnitude compared with that at ambient pressure. The investigation carried out here demonstrates high flexibility of double perovskites and their good potentials for optimizing the functionality of these materials.