Pressure-induced structural distortion of TbMnO3: A combined x-ray diffraction and x-ray absorption spectroscopy study

The variation of electronic states and structural distortion in highly compressed multiferroic TbMnO3 was probed by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) using synchrotron radiation. Refined XRD data enabled observation of a reduced local Jahn-Teller (JT) distortion of Mn sites within MnO6 octahedra in TbMnO3 with increasing hydrostatic pressure. A progressively increasing intensity of the white line in Mn K-edge x-ray absorption spectra of TbMnO3 was detected with increasing pressure. The absorption threshold of Mn K-edge spectra of TbMnO3 is shifted toward higher energy, whereas the pre-edge peak is slightly shifted to lower energy with increasing hydrostatic pressure. We provide spectral evidence for pressure-induced bandwidth broadening for mangnites. The enhanced intensity of the white line and the shifted absorption threshold of Mn K-edge spectra are explained in terms of a reduced JT distortion of MnO6 octahedra in compressed TbMnO3. Comparison of XAS data with full-multiple-scattering calculations using code FDMNES shows satisfactory agreement between experimental and calculated Mn K-edge spectra.