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Spin-Peierls transition in TiOCl

Mohammad Shaz, Sander van Smaalen, Lukas Palatinus, Markus Hoinkis, Matthias Klemm, Siegfried Horn, and Ralph Claessen
Phys. Rev. B 71, 100405(R) – Published 11 March 2005

Abstract

Temperature-dependent x-ray diffraction of the low-dimensional spin-12 quantum magnet TiOCl shows that the phase transition at Tc2=90K corresponds to a lowering of the lattice symmetry. Below Tc1=66K a twofold superstructure develops, that indicates the formation of spin-singlet pairs via direct exchange between neighboring Ti atoms, while the role of superexchange is found to be negligible. TiOCl thus is identified as a spin-Peierls system of pure one-dimensional chains of atoms. The first-order character of the transition at Tc1 is explained by the competition between the structurally deformed state below Tc2 and the spin-Peierls state below Tc1.

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  • Received 18 January 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.71.100405

©2005 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Mohammad Shaz1, Sander van Smaalen1,*, Lukas Palatinus1,2, Markus Hoinkis3, Matthias Klemm3, Siegfried Horn3, and Ralph Claessen3

  • 1Laboratory of Crystallography, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany
  • 2Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic
  • 3Experimentalphysik II, University of Augsburg, D-86135 Augsburg, Germany

  • *Electronic address: smash@uni-bayreuth.de (URL: http://www.uni-bayreuth.de/departments/crystal/).

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Issue

Vol. 71, Iss. 10 — 1 March 2005

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