Evidence for Electronic Phase Separation between Orbital Orderings inSmVO3

M. H. Sage, G. R. Blake, G. J. Nieuwenhuys, T. T. M. Palstra
2006 Physical Review Letters  
We report evidence for phase coexistence of orbital orderings of different symmetry in SmVO_3 by high resolution X-Ray powder diffraction. The phase coexistence is triggered by an antiferromagnetic ordering of the vanadium spins near 130K, below an initial orbital ordering near 200K. The phase coexistence is the result of the intermediate ionic size of samarium coupled to exchange striction at the vanadium spin ordering.
doi:10.1103/physrevlett.96.036401 pmid:16486741 fatcat:puriaxmwzfapnhm5k2yptsx6zm