Small Co-doping induced magnetic and electrical transitions in single crystal
Phys. Rev. B 113, 214443 – Published 18 June, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lssr-fzlr
Abstract
and single crystals were grown by combing floating-zone method with high oxygen pressure treatment. Both crystals show charge disproportionation of Fe () accompanied by a metal-to-insulator transition as well as a crystal structural transformation from Pbnm to . However, the slight introduction of Co significantly suppresses the critical temperature of charge disproportionation from 290 K in to 260 K in . Different from the single antiferromagnetic phase transition as observed in the polycrystalline , two sequential antiferromagnetic transitions are found to occur in these two single crystals with the Néel temperatures around 119 and 112 K for crystal and 109 and 98 K for crystal, respectively. Neutron diffraction illustrates the formation of a spiral antiferromagnetic structure. Moreover, as the temperature further decreases to 65 K, a third magnetic transition accompanied by a second electrical transition is observed in the slightly Co-doped crystal. First-principles calculations suggest that the introduction of a moderate amount of Co and the peculiar spiral spin texture play an important role in the presence of such new magnetic and electrical transitions.