Coupled magnetic and structural phase transitions in the antiferromagnetic polar metal Pb2CoOsO6 under pressure

TL;DR

This study investigates how pressure influences the coupled magnetic and structural phase transitions in the polar metal Pb2CoOsO6, revealing a critical pressure where magnetic frustration is relieved and a new antiferromagnetic state emerges.

Contribution

The paper combines transport measurements and first-principles calculations to elucidate pressure-induced changes in magnetic moments and structural distortions in Pb2CoOsO6, highlighting a discontinuous transition at a critical pressure.

Findings

Transition temperature T_N increases with pressure up to 4 GPa, then rises more slowly.

Os magnetic moment vanishes above a critical pressure, relieving magnetic frustration.

A new centrosymmetric antiferromagnetic state appears beyond the critical pressure.

Abstract

Pb$_2$CoOsO$_6$ is a newly synthesized polar metal in which inversion symmetry is broken by the magnetic frustration in an antiferromagnetic ordering of Co and Os sublattices. The coupled magnetic and structural transition occurs at 45 K at ambient pressure. Here we perform transport measurements and first-principles calculations to study the pressure effects on the magnetic/structural coupled transition of Pb$_2$CoOsO$_6$. Experimentally we monitor the resistivity anomaly at $T_N$ under various pressures up to 11 GPa in a cubic anvil cell apparatus. We find that $T_N$ determined from the resistivity anomaly first increases quickly with pressure in a large slope of $dT_N/dP$ = +6.8(8) K/GPa for $P < 4$ GPa, and then increases with a much reduced slope of 1.8(4) K/GPa above 4 GPa. Our first-principles calculations suggest that the observed discontinuity of $dT_N/dP$ around 4 GPa may be attributed to the vanishing of Os magnetic moment under pressure. Pressure substantially reduces the Os moment and completely suppresses it above a critical value, which relieves the magnetic frustration in the antiferromagnetic ordering of Pb$_2$CoOsO$_6$. The Co and Os polar distortions decrease with the increasing pressure and simultaneously vanish at the critical pressure. Therefore above the critical pressure a new centrosymmetric antiferromagnetic state emerges in Pb$_2$CoOsO$_6$, distinct from the one under ambient pressure, thus showing a discontinuity in $dT_N/dP$.