Unravelling disorder in kagome Yb$_{0.5}$Co$_3$Ge$_3$

TL;DR

This study investigates the structural disorder and phase transition in kagome Yb$_{0.5}$Co$_3$Ge$_3$ using advanced scattering techniques and simulations, revealing an order-disorder transition driven by geometric frustration.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed characterization of a type-I instability and disorder-driven transition in kagome Yb$_{0.5}$Co$_3$Ge$_3$ using diffuse and inelastic x-ray scattering.

Findings

Identification of a structural transition driven by in-plane Co distortion.

Observation of diffuse scattering indicating geometric frustration.

No softening in inelastic spectra, but broadening of acoustic modes.

Abstract

The presence of phonon instabilities that leads to the formation of charge modulated states in kagome metals has allowed their classification based on the atomic displacements. Here, we use diffuse and inelastic x-ray scattering, backed by Monte Carlo simulations to describe a type-I instability in the kagome metal Yb$_{0.5}$Co$_3$Ge$_3$. We find that the in-plane distortion of Co in the kagome plane drives a structural transition with the appearance of new Bragg peaks at odd $L$, which are surrounded by a hexagonal diffuse signal. The anisotropic diffuse scattering, characteristic of a highly frustrated triangular lattice was simulated following a combination of Ising hamiltonian and Lennard-Jones potential, and demonstrate that the structural phase transition in Yb$_{0.5}$Co$_3$Ge$_3$ is of an order-disorder transformation type. The inelastic spectra reveals no softening but an anomalous broadening of the $\Gamma-A$ low energy acoustic mode. Our results highlight the critical role of the geometric frustration in promoting ordering from disorder in kagome lattices and power of diffuse scattering to disentangle the internal atomic displacements and correlated disorder.