Pressure-induced insulator-to-metal transition and suppression of magnetism in thiospinel
Phys. Rev. B 112, 155118 – Published 9 October, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/gx1f-w31h
Abstract
Thiospinel is a rare diamond-lattice antiferromagnetic insulator with a relatively high Néel temperature of K at ambient pressure. We report here a systematic study of the pressure dependence of the structural, transport, and magnetic properties of up to 12 GPa. Below 5 GPa, retains its insulating behavior, with initially increasing and then decreasing, accompanied by a gradual reduction in the band gap. At GPa, an insulator-to-metal transition occurs. In the pressure range of GPa, exhibits a metallic state, with the resistivity showing a broad hump likely corresponding to short-range magnetic order. Above 10.5 GPa, it further evolves into a normal metal, suggesting the disappearance of magnetism. No structural distortion is detected across the sequential insulator-to-metal and magnetism-suppression transitions associated with the two-step phase evolution of the Mott transition. Density-functional theory calculations capture the key experimental trends, highlighting the crucial role of bandwidth and electronic correlations evolution under pressure in driving the Mott transition. A magnetism-pressure phase diagram for has been established, wherein the absence of quantum critical behavior implies that the bandwidth-controlled Mott transition may proceed as a first-order transition. Our results advance the broader understanding of pressure-induced quantum phase transitions in diamond-lattice antiferromagnets.