Interplay between structural, magnetic, and electronic states in the pyrochlore iridate <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>Eu</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>Ir</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">O</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mn>7</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math>
Manjil Das, Sayantika Bhowal, Jhuma Sannigrahi, A. Bandyopadhyay, Anupam Banerjee, Giannantonio Cibin, D. D. Khalyavin, Niladri Banerjee, D. T. Adroja, Indra Dasgupta, S. Majumdar
Abstract
We address the concomitant metal-insulator transition (MIT) and antiferromagnetic ordering in the novel pyrochlore iridate ${\mathrm{Eu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Ir}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{7}$ by combining x-ray absorption spectroscopy, x-ray and neutron diffractions, and density functional theory (DFT)-based calculations. The temperature dependent powder x-ray diffraction clearly rules out any change in the lattice symmetry below the MIT, nevertheless a clear anomaly in the Ir-O-Ir bond angle and Ir-O bond length is evident at the onset of MIT. From the x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopic study of Ir-${L}_{3}$ and ${L}_{2}$ edges, the effective spin-orbit coupling is found to be intermediate, at least quite far from the strong atomic spin-orbit coupling limit. Powder neutron diffraction measurement is in line with an all-in-all-out magnetic structure of the Ir-tetrahedra in this compound, which is quite common among rare-earth pyrochlore iridates. The sharp change in the Ir-O-Ir bond angle around the MIT possibly arises from the exchange striction mechanism, which favors an enhanced electron correlation via weakening of Ir-Ir orbital overlap and an insulating phase below ${T}_{MI}$. The theoretical calculations indicate an insulating state for shorter bond angle validating the experimental observation. Our DFT calculations show a possibility of intriguing topological phase below a critical value of the Ir-O distance, which is shorter than the experimentally observed bond length. Therefore, a topological state may be realized in bulk ${\mathrm{Eu}}_{2}{\mathrm{Ir}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{7}$ sample if the Ir-O bond length can be reduced by the application of sufficient external pressure.