Phase transition and critical behavior of spin-orbital coupled spinel ZnV2O4
摘要
We present the temperature-dependent susceptibility and specific heat measurement of spinel ZnV2O4.The structural transition with orbital ordering and the antiferromagnetic transition with spin ordering were observed at 50 K and 37 K,respectively.By analysis of the hysteresis behavior between the specific heat curves obtained in warming and cooling processes,the structural transition was confirmed to be the first-order transition,while the antiferromagnetic transition was found to be of the second-order type.At the structural transition,the latent heat and entropy change were calculated from the excess specific heat,and the derivative of pressure with respect to temperature was obtained using the Clausius-Clapayron equation.At the magnetic transition,the width of the critical fluctuation region was obtained to be about 0.5 K by comparing with Gaussian fluctuations.In the critical region,the critical behavior was analyzed by using renormalization-group theory.The critical amplitude ratio A+/A- = 1.46,which deviates from the 3D Heisenburg model;while the critical exponent α is-0.011,which is close to the 3D XY model.We proposed that these abnormal critical behaviors can be attributed to strong spin-orbital coupling accompanied with the antiferromagnetic transition.Moreover,in the low temperature range（2-5 K）,the Fermi energy,the density of states near the Fermi surface,and the low limit of Debye temperature were estimated to be2.42 eV,2.48 eV-1,and 240 K,respectively.