Mott transition and magnetic collapse in iron-bearing compounds under high pressure

We discuss the electronic, magnetic, and related structural transitions in the iron-based Mott insulators under high pressures relevant to the Earths lower mantle conditions. The paper focuses on the above-mentioned topics based primarily on our theoretical analysis and various experimental studies employing synchrotron X-ray diffraction, Fe-57 Mossbauer spectroscopy, and electrical transport measurements. We review the main theoretical tools employed for the analysis of the properties of materials with strongly interacting electrons and discuss the problems of theoretical description of such systems. In particular, we discuss a state-of-the-art method for calculating the electronic structure of strongly correlated materials, the DFT + DMFT method, which merges standard band-structure techniques (DFT) with dynamical mean-field theory of correlated electrons (DMFT). We employ this method to study the pressure-induced magnetic collapse in Mott insulators, such as wustite (FeO), magnesiowustite (Fe1-xMgx)O (x=0.25 and 0.75) and goethite (FeOOH), and explore the consequences of the magnetic collapse for the electronic structure and phase stability of these materials. We show that the paramagnetic cubic B1-structured FeO and (Fe,Mg)O and distorted orthorhombic (Pnma) FeOOH exhibit upon compression a high-to low-spin (HS-LS) transition, which is accompanied by a simultaneous collapse of local moments. However, the HS-LS transition is found to have different consequences for the electronic properties of these compounds. For FeO and (Fe0.75Mg0.25)O, the transition is found to be accompanied by a Mott insulator-to-metal phase transition. In contrast to that, both (Fe0.25Mg0.75)O and FeOOH remain insulating up to the highest studied pressures, indicating that a Mott insulator to band insulator phase transition takes place. Our combined theoretical and experimental studies indicate a crossover between localized to itinerant moment behavior to accompany magnetic collapse of Fe
Funding Agencies|Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through Transregio TRR [80]; Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation [K3-2016-027, 14.Y26.31.0005]; Russian Foundation for Basic Research [16-02-01027]; Swedish Research Council (VR) [2015-04391]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University (Faculty Grant SFO-Mat-LiU) [2009 00971]; Israel Science Foundation [1189/14]