APS » PROLA » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 87 » Issue 8

Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 086402 (2001) [4 pages]

“Devil’s Staircase”-Type Phase Transition in NaV2O5 under High Pressure
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K. Ohwada1 *, Y. Fujii1, N. Takesue1, M. Isobe2, Y. Ueda2, H. Nakao3, Y. Wakabayashi3,4 †, Y. Murakami3 ‡, K. Ito5, Y. Amemiya6, H. Fujihisa7, K. Aoki7, T. Shobu8 §, Y. Noda8, and N. Ikeda9
1Neutron Scattering Laboratory, Institute for Solid States Physics, The University of Tokyo, 106-1 Shirakata, Tokai, 319-1106, Japan
2Material Design and Characterization Laboratory, Institute for Solid States Physics, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8581, Japan
3Photon Factory, Institute of Materials Structure Science, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), 1-1 Oho, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
4Science and Technology, Keio University, 3-14-1, Hiyoshi, Kouhoku-ku, Yokohama, 223-8522 Japan
5Institute of Material Science, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan
6Department of Advanced Materials Science, Graduate School of Frontier Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
7National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research, Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, 1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8565, Japan
8Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8577, Japan
9The Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI), SPring-8, 1-1-1 Kouto, Mikazuki, Hyogo 679-5198, Japan

Received 18 April 2001; published 7 August 2001

The “devil’s staircase”-type phase transition in the quarter-filled spin-ladder compound NaV2O5 has been discovered at low temperature and high pressure by synchrotron radiation x-ray diffraction. A large number of transitions are found to successively take place among higher-order commensurate phases with 2a×2b×zc type superstructures. The observed temperature and pressure dependence of modulation wave number qc, defined by 1/z, is well reproduced by the axial next nearest neighbor Ising model. The qc is suggested to reflect atomic displacements presumably coupled with charge ordering in this system.


©2001 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v87/e086402
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.086402
PACS: 71.27.+a, 61.10.Eq, 62.50.+p

* Present address: Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (SPring-8), Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, 1-1-1 Koto Mikazuki-cho Sayo-gun Hyogo 679-5148, Japan.
† Present address: Chiba University, 1-33, Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba, 263-8522 Japan.
‡ Present address: Department of Physics, Tohoku University, Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.
§ Present address: SPring-8 Service, Inc., 2-23-1, Koto, Kamigori-cho, Ako-gun, Hyogo 678-1201, Japan.

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