Magnetic phase diagrams of YVO and TbVO under high pressure

Bizen, Daisuke*; Nakao, Hironori*; Iwasa, Kazuaki*; Murakami, Yoichi*; Osakabe, Toyotaka  ; Fujioka, Jun*; Yasue, Toshio*; Miyasaka, Shigeki*; Tokura, Yoshinori*

The magnetic phase diagrams for VO ( = Y, Tb) were determined by low temperature and high pressure neutron-diffraction techniques. We found that the magnetic ground state in TbVO changes from -type spin ordering (-SO) to -type spin ordering (-SO) on application of pressure. The transition of the magnetic ground state also indicates that the ground state of the orbital ordering changes from -type orbital ordering (-OO) to -type orbital ordering (-OO). In YVO, the -SO and -OO phases set in simultaneously up to 6.2 GPa, and the disorder-[-SO, -OO] phase transition appears above 6 GPa. This is the first observation of a simultaneous spin and orbital order-disorder phase transition in perovskite-type transition-metal oxides MO. The [-SO, -OO] phase is strongly stabilized with increasing pressure, and both the covalency effect and the superexchange interaction play roles in this stabilization.