Observation of a new incommensurate phase in the spinel MnV2O4

ORAL

Abstract

Using x-ray scattering, we studied the temperature dependence of a large volume of reciprocal space in a MnV2O4 spinel crystal. In addition to the known cubic to tetragonal phase transition at around 56 K, we observed previously unreported incommensurate modulation peaks at delta q = 0.33 0.33 -0.16. We measured the temperature dependence of these modulations and, while they exhibit a shift or splitting in momentum space analogous to that of the structural phase transition, they do so at higher temperature than the Bragg reflections (~100K). Our results suggest that MnV2O4 has an additional phase transition that may a precursor for the V t2g orbital ordering, which is closely related to the cubic to tetragonal transition.

*This work was supported by the DOE grant no. DE-FG02-06ER46285

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Authors

  • Gilberto de la Pena Munoz

    • Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Sangjun Lee

    • Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Samuel Gleason

    • Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Taylor Byrum

    • Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Xinyue Fang

    • Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Shih-Chang Weng

    • National Sychrotron Radiation Research Center

  • Peter Abbamonte

    • Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • Univ of Illinois - Urbana