Outstanding TC Enhancement in 5d-3d Y2NiIrO6 by Compression

TL;DR

This study investigates pressure effects on Y2NiIrO6, revealing enhanced magnetic properties and superexchange interactions, providing insights into 5d-3d magnetism and guiding bond engineering in iridates.

Contribution

It demonstrates how pressure modifies magnetic interactions and superexchange pathways in Y2NiIrO6, offering a new framework for understanding 5d-3d compound magnetism.

Findings

Curie temperature increases from 192 to 240 K under pressure.

Pressure compresses Ni/Ir-O bonds and alters bond angles.

Superexchange pathways remain robust under lattice distortion.

Abstract

Understanding and predicting the properties of 5d compounds critically depend on the identification of the superexchange interactions from which their magnetism emerges. The study of pressure effects on double perovskites Y2NiIrO6 (YNIO) provide deep insight toward this goal. At ambient pressure, YNIO is a ferrimagnetic insulator with the Ir4+-5d Jeff = 1/2 Mott-insulating state. Under the physical pressure up to 17 GPa, the compound exhibits concurrent compression on Ni/Ir-O bond lengths and Ni-O-Ir bond angles, leading to increase of the Curie temperature from 192 to 240 K. In contrary, external pressure increases distanced Ir-Ir interaction and in turn induces magnetic frustration in Sr2IrO4/Sr3Ir2O7 due to the extended 5d orbitals. In YNIO, the rock-salt ordered Ni-Ir naturally blocks extended superexchange beyond the nearest neighbor, and in turn suppresses such magnetic frustration. Moreover, the orthogonal Ni eg-Ir t2g pathway in YNIO is robust under lattice distortion, while the superexchange is weakened by bond bending in La2NiMnO6 with a similar half-filed eg-t2g configuration. Our findings establish a framework for elucidating the mechanism of 5d-3d superexchange and guides bond-engineered magnetism in iridate-related systems.