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Critical Self Organization of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Perovskite Nickelates

ORAL

Abstract

Rare earth nickelates are strongly correlated oxides who offer rich phenomenology due to interplay of structural, electronic and spin degrees of freedom. Here we study a thin film of PrNiO3 grown on a (LaAlO3)0.3(Sr2TaAlO6)0.7 (LSAT) substrate (tensile strain). This material exhibits concurrent structural (orthorhombic to monoclinic) electronic (metal to insulator) and magnetic (paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic) transitions. The phase transition is first order in nature and happens at ~115K with a hysteresis of 30K. Here we performed coherent resonant soft x-ray scattering tuned to the Ni L3 edge to study the emergence of the magnetic order parameter as the transition happens. Coherent magnetic x-ray scattering produces a speckle pattern that serves as a ‘fingerprint’ of a particular magnetic domain configuration. We observed a novel small-q periodic modulation of the magnetic Bragg peak intensity which only occurs at temperatures near the onset of transition. We argue coherent magnetic domain ordering as the origin of the small-q modulation when the transition is critically fluctuating. Furthermore we provide experimental evidence that this novel magnetic texture is decoupled from any structural origin.

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Presenters

  • Rourav Basak

    University of California, San Diego

Authors

  • Rourav Basak

    University of California, San Diego

  • Martin Bluschke

    Max Planck Inst for Solid State Research

  • Ivan Zaluzhnyy

    University of California, San Diego, Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego

  • Nelson Hua

    University of California, San Diego, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

  • Boyan Stoychev

    University of California, San Diego

  • Anatoly Shabalin

    University of California, San Diego, Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego

  • Katrin Fuersich

    Max Planck Inst for Solid State Research, Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research, Heisenbergstrasse 1, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany

  • Georg Christiani

    Max Planck Inst for Solid State Research

  • Sujoy Roy

    Advanced Light Source, Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Eric Dufresne

    Argonne National Lab

  • Andi Barbour

    Brookhaven National Lab, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Brookhaven Natl Lab, National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, NSLS-II, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Claudio Mazzoli

    Brookhaven National Lab, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Brookhaven Natl Lab

  • Oleg Shpyrko

    University of California, San Diego, Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego

  • Eva Benckiser

    Max Planck Inst for Solid State Research

  • Bernhard Keimer

    Max Planck Inst for Solid State Research, Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research, Heisenbergstrasse 1, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Physics, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Solid State spectroscopy, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany

  • Alex Frano

    University of California, San Diego, University of California San Diego, Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego