Origin of Ising magnetism in Ca<sub>3</sub>Co<sub>2</sub>O<sub>6</sub> unveiled by orbital imaging.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31784516.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-13273-4 and PMC identifier 6884600.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The one-dimensional cobaltate Ca[Formula: see text]Co[Formula: see text]O[Formula: see text] is an intriguing material having an unconventional magnetic structure, displaying quantum tunneling phenomena in its magnetization. Using a newly developed experimental method, [Formula: see text]-core-level non-resonant inelastic x-ray scattering ([Formula: see text]-NIXS), we were able to image the atomic Co [Formula: see text] orbital that is responsible for the Ising magnetism in this system. We can directly observe that corrections to the commonly accepted ideal prismatic trigonal crystal field scheme occur in Ca[Formula: see text]Co[Formula: see text]O[Formula: see text], and it is the complex [Formula: see text] orbital occupied by the sixth electron at the high-spin Co[Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]) sites that generates the Ising-like behavior. The ability to directly relate the orbital occupation with the local crystal structure is essential to model the magnetic properties of this system.