Hidden Charge Order in an Iron Oxide Square-Lattice Compound

TL;DR

This study reveals a hidden checkerboard charge order in an iron oxide compound using advanced scattering techniques, showing it disappears at a specific temperature and explaining previous detection difficulties.

Contribution

It demonstrates the presence of hidden charge order in Sr₃Fe₂O₇ using neutron Larmor diffraction and resonant x-ray scattering, revealing a phase transition and stacking disorder.

Findings

Checkerboard charge order exists in FeO₂ planes.

Charge order vanishes above 332 K.

Stacking disorder broadens superstructure reflections.

Abstract

Since the discovery of charge disproportionation in the FeO$_2$ square-lattice compound Sr$_3$Fe$_2$O$_7$ by M\"ossbauer spectroscopy more than fifty years ago, the spatial ordering pattern of the disproportionated charges has remained "hidden" to conventional diffraction probes, despite numerous x-ray and neutron scattering studies. We have used neutron Larmor diffraction and Fe K-edge resonant x-ray scattering to demonstrate checkerboard charge order in the FeO$_2$ planes that vanishes at a sharp second-order phase transition upon heating above 332 K. Stacking disorder of the checkerboard pattern due to frustrated interlayer interactions broadens the corresponding superstructure reflections and greatly reduces their amplitude, thus explaining the difficulty to detect them by conventional probes. We discuss implications of these findings for research on "hidden order" in other materials.