High pressure and multiferroics materials: a happy marriage

Geoinspired syntheses of materials and nanomaterials

The search for new materials is intimately linked to the development of synthesis methods. In the current urge for the sustainable synthesis of materials, taking inspiration from Nature's ways to process matter appears as a virtuous approach. In this review, we address the concept of geoinspiration for the design of new materials and the exploration of new synthesis pathways. In geoinspiration, materials scientists take inspiration from the key features of various geological systems and processes occurring in nature, to trigger the formation of artificial materials and nanomaterials. We discuss several case studies of materials and nanomaterials to highlight the basic geoinspiration concepts underlying some synthesis methods: syntheses in water and supercritical water, thermal shock syntheses, molten salt synthesis and high pressure synthesis. We show that the materials emerging from geoinspiration exhibit properties differing from materials obtained by other pathways, thus demonstrating that the field opens up avenues to new families of materials and nanomaterials. This review focuses on synthesis methodologies, by drawing connections between geosciences and materials chemistry, nanosciences, green chemistry, and environmental sciences.

Influence of the Chemical Pressure on the Magnetic Properties of the Mixed Anion Cuprates Cu2OX2 (X = Cl, Br, I)

In this study, we theoretically investigate the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of the Cu2OX2 (X = Cl, Br, I) compounds. Previous studies reported potential spin-driven ferroelectricity in Cu2OCl2, originating from a non-collinear magnetic phase existing below TN∼70 K. However, the nature of this low-temperature magnetic phase is still under debate. Here, we focus on the calculation of J exchange couplings and enhance knowledge in the field by (i) characterizing the low-temperature magnetic order for Cu2OCl2 and (ii) evaluating the impact of the chemical pressure on the magnetic interactions, which leads us to consider the two new phases Cu2OBr2 and Cu2OI2. Our ab initio simulations notably demonstrate the coexistence of strong antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interactions, leading to spin frustration. The TN Néel temperatures were estimated on the basis of a quasi-1D AFM model using the abinitioJ couplings. It nicely reproduces the TN value for Cu2OCl2 and allows us to predict an increase of TN under chemical pressure, with TN = 120 K for the dynamically stable phase Cu2OBr2. This investigation suggests that chemical pressure is an effective key factor to open the door of room-temperature multiferroicity.

Recovering local structure information from high-pressure total scattering experiments

High pressure is a powerful thermodynamic tool for exploring the structure and the phase behaviour of the crystalline state, and is now widely used in conventional crystallographic measurements. High-pressure local structure measurements using neutron diffraction have, thus far, been limited by the presence of a strongly scattering, perdeuterated, pressure-transmitting medium (PTM), the signal from which contaminates the resulting pair distribution functions (PDFs). Here, a method is reported for subtracting the pairwise correlations of the commonly used 4:1 methanol:ethanol PTM from neutron PDFs obtained under hydro-static compression. The method applies a molecular-dynamics-informed empirical correction and a non-negative matrix factorization algorithm to recover the PDF of the pure sample. Proof of principle is demonstrated, producing corrected high-pressure PDFs of simple crystalline materials, Ni and MgO, and benchmarking these against simulated data from the average structure. Finally, the first local structure determination of α-quartz under hydro-static pressure is presented, extracting compression behaviour of the real-space structure.

In Situ High-Pressure Synthesis of New Outstanding Light-Element Materials under Industrial P-T Range

High-pressure synthesis (which refers to pressure synthesis in the range of 1 to several GPa) adds a promising additional dimension for exploration of compounds that are inaccessible to traditional chemical methods and can lead to new industrially outstanding materials. It is nowadays a vast exciting field of industrial and academic research opening up new frontiers. In this context, an emerging and important methodology for the rapid exploration of composition-pressure-temperature-time space is the in situ method by synchrotron X-ray diffraction. This review introduces the latest advances of high-pressure devices that are adapted to X-ray diffraction in synchrotrons. It focuses particularly on the "large volume" presses (able to compress the volume above several mm3 to pressure higher than several GPa) designed for in situ exploration and that are suitable for discovering and scaling the stable or metastable compounds under "traditional" industrial pressure range (3-8 GPa). We illustrated the power of such methodology by (i) two classical examples of "reference" superhard high-pressure materials, diamond and cubic boron nitride c-BN; and (ii) recent successful in situ high-pressure syntheses of light-element compounds that allowed expanding the domain of possible application high-pressure materials toward solar optoelectronic and infra-red photonics. Finally, in the last section, we summarize some perspectives regarding the current challenges and future directions in which the field of in situ high-pressure synthesis in industrial pressure scale may have great breakthroughs in the next years.

Imaging stress and magnetism at high pressures using a nanoscale quantum sensor

Pressure alters the physical, chemical, and electronic properties of matter. The diamond anvil cell enables tabletop experiments to investigate a diverse landscape of high-pressure phenomena. Here, we introduce and use a nanoscale sensing platform that integrates nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers directly into the culet of diamond anvils. We demonstrate the versatility of this platform by performing diffraction-limited imaging of both stress fields and magnetism as a function of pressure and temperature. We quantify all normal and shear stress components and demonstrate vector magnetic field imaging, enabling measurement of the pressure-driven α↔ϵ phase transition in iron and the complex pressure-temperature phase diagram of gadolinium. A complementary NV-sensing modality using noise spectroscopy enables the characterization of phase transitions even in the absence of static magnetic signatures.

Evolution of Magneto-Orbital order Upon B-Site Electron Doping in Na_{1-x}Ca_{x}Mn_{7}O_{12} Quadruple Perovskite Manganites

We present the discovery and refinement by neutron powder diffraction of a new magnetic phase in the Na_{1-x}Ca_{x}Mn_{7}O_{12} quadruple perovskite phase diagram, which is the incommensurate analogue of the well-known pseudo-CE phase of the simple perovskite manganites. We demonstrate that incommensurate magnetic order arises in quadruple perovskites due to the exchange interactions between A and B sites. Furthermore, by constructing a simple mean field Heisenberg exchange model that generically describes both simple and quadruple perovskite systems, we show that this new magnetic phase unifies a picture of the interplay between charge, magnetic, and orbital ordering across a wide range of compounds.

Triclinic crystal structure distortion of multiferroic BiMn7O12

The quadruple perovskite BiMn7O12obtainedviahigh-pressure synthesis was investigated by high-resolution synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction over a temperature range of 10 to 295 K. Careful Rietveld analysis reveals triclinic lattice distortion of BiMn7O12at 295 K, which increases upon cooling to 10 K. Alsohkl-dependent anisotropic Bragg reflection shape was introduced to give a precise description of the diffracted intensities. Importantly BiMn7O12crystal structure was described in the non-centrosymmetricI1 triclinic space group. We also demonstrate the use of irreducible representations analysis (ISODISTORTprogram) for crystal structure distortion fromImtoI1 space group. The irreducible representation which describes crystal structure distortion points towards possible ferroelectricity. Finally anisotropic thermal lattice expansion was observed.

Impact and influence of crystallography across the sciences

Crystallography has influenced many of the traditional science disciplines and has opened a number of cross-disciplinary activities often bringing physicists, chemists, biologists and medical scientists together.

Spin-Driven Multiferroic Properties of PbMn7O12 Perovskite

We synthesize PbMn7O12 perovskite under high-pressure (6 GPa) and high-temperature (1373 K) conditions and investigate its structural, magnetic, dielectric, and ferroelectric properties. We find that PbMn7O12 exhibits rich physical properties from interplay among charge, orbital, and spin degrees of freedom and rich structural properties. PbMn7O12 crystallizes in space group R3̅ near room temperature and shows a structural phase transition at TCO = 397 K to a cubic structure in space group Im3̅; the Im3̅-to-R3̅ transition is associated with charge ordering. Below TOO = 294 K, a structural modulation transition associated with orbital ordering takes place. There are two magnetic transitions with Néel temperatures of TN1 = 83 K and TN2 = 77 K and probably a lock-in transition at TN3 = 43 K (on cooling). There is huge hysteresis on specific heat (between ∼37 and 65 K at 0 Oe), dielectric constant (between ∼20 and 70 K at 0 Oe), and dc and ac magnetic susceptibilities around the lock-in transition. Sharp dielectric constant, dielectric loss, and pyroelectric current anomalies are observed at TN2, indicating that electric polarization is developed at this magnetic transition, and PbMn7O12 perovskite is a spin-driven multiferroic. Polarization of PbMn7O12 is measured to be ∼4 μC/m(2). Field-induced transitions are detected at ∼63 and ∼170 kOe at 1.6-2 K; similar high-magnetic field properties are also found for CdMn7O12, CaMn7O12, and SrMn7O12. PbMn7O12 exhibits a quite small magnetodielectric effect, reaching approximately -1.3 to -1.7% at 10 K and 90 kOe.

Recent developments in the structural science of materials

This Editorial surveys the current status and recent developments in the structural science of materials as exemplified by the articles recently published in IUCrJ.

Synthesis, structures and magnetic properties of the dimorphic Mn2CrSbO6oxide

Mn₂CrSbO₆-perovskite was synthesized at high pressure in order to stabilize the small Mn²⁺cations on the A-perovskite site. Mn₂CrSbO₆-ilmenite polymorph can be prepared, starting from the perovskite, by a “hard-soft” phase transformation increasing the temperature at room pressure.