Selected magnetoelectrical phonon stiffening in Cr2O3

Qiyang Sun; Yaokun Su; Douglas L. Abernathy; Wei Tian; Chen Li

doi:10.1103/9fn7-px7d

Selected magnetoelectrical phonon stiffening in Cr₂O₃

Qiyang Sun
, Yaokun Su
, Douglas L. Abernathy
, Wei Tian
, Chen Li

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

A thorough understanding of lattice dynamics, particularly how they couple with spin through spin-phonon interactions, is crucial for pioneering new spin-caloritronic applications. Despite extensive studies on Cr₂O₃, the origin of nonlinear thermal expansions and the unusual stiffening of optical phonon modes is still elusive. Through inelastic neutron scattering and atomistic calculations, we found that these behaviors can be attributed to the renormalization of electron states owing to the magnetic transition, and we ruled out the effects from thermal expansion, phonon anharmonicity, magnetostriction, or electron-phonon interactions. Importantly, our quantitative modeling suggests that the common belief that dynamic spin-phonon interactions are the origin of anomalous phonon energy stiffening in magnetic compounds does not apply in Cr₂O₃.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	L0603031-L0603036
Journal	Physical Review B
Volume	112
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/9fn7-px7d
State	Published - Aug 26 2025

Funding

Q.S., Y.S., and C.L. are supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0023874. This research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The beam time was allocated to BL-18 ARCS on Proposal No. IPTS-22435.

Access to Document

10.1103/9fn7-px7d

Cite this

@article{d3f9afe3556b4a8c98bd8dece5de6480,

title = "Selected magnetoelectrical phonon stiffening in Cr2O3",

abstract = "A thorough understanding of lattice dynamics, particularly how they couple with spin through spin-phonon interactions, is crucial for pioneering new spin-caloritronic applications. Despite extensive studies on Cr2O3, the origin of nonlinear thermal expansions and the unusual stiffening of optical phonon modes is still elusive. Through inelastic neutron scattering and atomistic calculations, we found that these behaviors can be attributed to the renormalization of electron states owing to the magnetic transition, and we ruled out the effects from thermal expansion, phonon anharmonicity, magnetostriction, or electron-phonon interactions. Importantly, our quantitative modeling suggests that the common belief that dynamic spin-phonon interactions are the origin of anomalous phonon energy stiffening in magnetic compounds does not apply in Cr2O3.",

author = "Qiyang Sun and Yaokun Su and Abernathy, \{Douglas L.\} and Wei Tian and Chen Li",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 American Physical Society",

year = "2025",

month = aug,

day = "26",

doi = "10.1103/9fn7-px7d",

language = "English",

volume = "112",

pages = "L0603031--L0603036",

journal = "Physical Review B",

issn = "2469-9950",

publisher = "American Physical Society",

number = "6",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Selected magnetoelectrical phonon stiffening in Cr2O3

AU - Sun, Qiyang

AU - Su, Yaokun

AU - Abernathy, Douglas L.

AU - Tian, Wei

AU - Li, Chen

PY - 2025/8/26

Y1 - 2025/8/26

N2 - A thorough understanding of lattice dynamics, particularly how they couple with spin through spin-phonon interactions, is crucial for pioneering new spin-caloritronic applications. Despite extensive studies on Cr2O3, the origin of nonlinear thermal expansions and the unusual stiffening of optical phonon modes is still elusive. Through inelastic neutron scattering and atomistic calculations, we found that these behaviors can be attributed to the renormalization of electron states owing to the magnetic transition, and we ruled out the effects from thermal expansion, phonon anharmonicity, magnetostriction, or electron-phonon interactions. Importantly, our quantitative modeling suggests that the common belief that dynamic spin-phonon interactions are the origin of anomalous phonon energy stiffening in magnetic compounds does not apply in Cr2O3.

AB - A thorough understanding of lattice dynamics, particularly how they couple with spin through spin-phonon interactions, is crucial for pioneering new spin-caloritronic applications. Despite extensive studies on Cr2O3, the origin of nonlinear thermal expansions and the unusual stiffening of optical phonon modes is still elusive. Through inelastic neutron scattering and atomistic calculations, we found that these behaviors can be attributed to the renormalization of electron states owing to the magnetic transition, and we ruled out the effects from thermal expansion, phonon anharmonicity, magnetostriction, or electron-phonon interactions. Importantly, our quantitative modeling suggests that the common belief that dynamic spin-phonon interactions are the origin of anomalous phonon energy stiffening in magnetic compounds does not apply in Cr2O3.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105021917435

U2 - 10.1103/9fn7-px7d

DO - 10.1103/9fn7-px7d

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105021917435

SN - 2469-9950

VL - 112

SP - L0603031-L0603036

JO - Physical Review B

JF - Physical Review B

IS - 6

ER -

Selected magnetoelectrical phonon stiffening in Cr₂O₃

Abstract

Funding

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this