Structural Investigation of BaIrO$_3$ by Neutron Diffraction

TL;DR

This study uses neutron diffraction to analyze structural changes in BaIrO$_3$ around its charge density wave and magnetic transition at 180 K, revealing subtle octahedral distortions without symmetry breaking.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed structure and electronic configuration model considering spin-orbit coupling and lattice distortions to explain the phase transition in BaIrO$_3$.

Findings

No symmetry breaking in crystal structure at T$_C$

Noticeable change in IrO$_6$ octahedra near T$_C$

Competing $J_{eff,1/2}$ Mott and charge gap phases

Abstract

We report a temperature-dependent neutron diffraction (ND) study on polycrystalline monoclinic BaIrO$_3$ which is famous for charge density wave (CDW) and weak ferromagnetic phase transitions at T$_C$$\sim$180 K simultaneously. A Rietveld analysis on the ND patterns reveals that even though there is no symmetry breaking in crystal structure, a noticeable change in the four kinds of IrO$_{6}$ octahedra is isolated as the temperature approaches to T$_C$. Based on the structure analysis results, we calculated the $d$-orbital energy level splittings by crystal electric field for each type of the IrO$_6$ octahedra. By taking into account the strong spin-orbit coupling in Ir 5$d$ orbitals and the lattice distortions obtained from the ND analysis, we propose an electronic configuration model to understand the phase transition of the system, where an effective $J_{\rm eff, 1/2}$ Mott insulating phase and a charge gap phase induced by bonding states between the $J_{\rm eff,1/2}$ states compete each other.