Orbital-ordering driven structural distortion in metallic SrCrO3

Abstract

In contrast to the previous reports that the divalent perovskite SrCrO$_3$ was believed to be cubic structure and nonmagnetic metal, recent measurements suggest coexistence of majority tetragonally distorted weak antiferromagnetic phase and minority nonmagnetic cubic phase. Within the local (spin) density approximation (L(S)DA) our calculations confirm that a slightly tetragonally distorted phase indeed is energetically favored. Using the correlated band theory method (LDA+ Hubbard U) as seems to be justified by the unusual behavior observed in SrCrO$_3$, above the critical value $U_c$=4 eV only the distorted phase undergoes an orbital-ordering transition, resulting in $t_{2g}^2 --> d_{xy}^1$($d_{xz}d_{yz}$)$^1$ corresponding to the filling of the $d_{xy}$ orbital but leaving the other two degenerate. The Fermi surfaces of the cubic phase are simple with nesting features, although the nesting wavevectors do not correlate with known data. This is not uncommon in perovskites; the strongly directional d-d bonding often leads to boxlike Fermi surfaces, and either the nesting is not strong enough, or the matrix elements are not large enough, to promote instabilities. Fixed spin moment calculations indicate the cubic structure is just beyond a ferromagnetic Stoner instability (IN(0)~1.1) in L(S)DA, and that the energy is unusually weakly dependent on the moment out to 1.5$μ_B$/Cr (varying only by 11 meV/Cr), reflecting low energy long-wavelength magnetic fluctuations. We observe that this system shows strong magneto-phonon coupling (change in Cr local moment is ~7.3 $μ_B$/Å) for breathing phonon modes.