2 research outputs found
X-ray Scattering Study of the spin-Peierls transition and soft phonon behavior in TiOCl
We have studied the S=1/2 quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnet TiOCl using
single crystal x-ray diffraction and inelastic x-ray scattering techniques. The
Ti ions form staggered spin chains which dimerize below Tc1 = 66 K and have an
incommensurate lattice distortion between Tc1 and Tc2 = 92 K. Based on our
measurements of the intensities, wave vectors, and harmonics of the
incommensurate superlattice peaks, we construct a model for the incommensurate
modulation. The results are in good agreement with a soliton lattice model,
though some quantitative discrepancies exist near Tc2. The behavior of the
phonons has been studied using inelastic x-ray scattering with ~2 meV energy
resolution. For the first time, a zone boundary phonon which softens at the
spin-Peierls temperature Tsp has been observed. Our results show reasonably
good quantitative agreement with the Cross-Fisher theory for the phonon
dynamics at wave vectors near the zone boundary and temperatures near Tsp.
However, not all aspects of the data can be described, such as the strong
overdamping of the soft mode above Tsp. Overall, our results show that TiOCl is
a good realization of a spin-Peierls system, where the phonon softening allows
us to identify the transition temperature as Tsp=Tc2=92 KComment: 14 pages, 14 figure
Cluster Dynamical Mean-field calculations for TiOCl
Based on a combination of cluster dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) and
density functional calculations, we calculated the angle-integrated spectral
density in the layered quantum magnet TiOCl. The agreement with recent
photoemission and oxygen K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy experiments is
found to be good. Th e improvement achieved with this calculation with respect
to previous single-site DMFT calculations is an indication of the correlated
nature and low-dimensionality of TiOCl.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, improved version as publishe