Landau Theory for Non-Symmetry-Breaking Electronic Instability Coupled to Symmetry-Breaking Applied to Prussian Blue Analogue

TL;DR

This paper extends Landau theory to describe electronic instabilities that do not break symmetry but couple to symmetry-breaking phenomena, using Prussian blue analogue as a case study, revealing insights into complex phase transitions.

Contribution

It introduces a Landau theoretical framework incorporating qh2 coupling for non-symmetry-breaking electronic instabilities and applies it to a Prussian blue analogue.

Findings

The model explains large volume strains due to charge transfer.

Phase diagrams match experimental observations.

Applicable to various materials with electronic instabilities.

Abstract

Different types of ordering phenomena may occur during phase transitions, described within the universal framework of the Landau theory through the evolution of one, or several, symmetry-breaking order parameter h. In addition, many systems undergo phase transitions related to an electronic instability, in the absence of a symmetry-breaking and eventually described through the evolution of a totally symmetric order parameter q linearly coupled to volume change. Analyzing the coupling of a non-symmetry-breaking electronic instability, responsible for volume strain, to symmetry-breaking phenomena is of importance for many systems in nature and here we show that the symmetry-allowed qh2 coupling plays a central role. We use as case study the rubidium manganese hexacyanoferrate Prussian blue analogue, exhibiting phase transitions with hysteresis that may exceed 100 K, and based on intermetallic charge transfer (CT). During the phase transition, the intermetallic CT described through the evolution of q is coupled to cubic-tetragonal ferroelastic symmetry-breaking described through the evolution of h. In this system, the symmetry-breaking and non-symmetry breaking deformations have similar amplitudes but the large volume strain is mainly due to CT. We analyze both the ferroelastic and the CT features of the phase transition within the frame of the Landau theory, taking into account the qh2 coupling, stabilizing concomitant CT and Jahn-Teller distortion. The phase diagrams obtained with this model are in good qualitative agreement with various experimental findings and apply to diverse families of materials undergoing Mott transition, spin-crossover, neutral-ionic transition, for which isostructural electronic instability driving volume strain can couple to symmetry-breaking or not, create phase transition lines and drive cooperative phenomena.