Atomic reconstruction induced by uniaxial stress in MnP

In condensed matter physics, pressure is frequently used to modify the stability of both electronic states and atomic arrangements. Under isotropic pressure, the intermetallic compound MnP has recently attracted attention for the interplay between pressure-induced superconductivity and complicated magnetic order in the vicinity. By contrast, we use uniaxial stress, a directional type of pressure, to investigate the effect on the magnetism and crystal structure of this compound. An irreversible magnetisation response induced by uniaxial stress is discovered in MnP at uniaxial stress as low as 0.04 GPa. Neutron diffraction experiments reveal that uniaxial stress forms crystal domains that satisfy pseudo-rotational symmetry unique to the MnP-type structure. The structure of the coexisting domains accounts for the stress-induced magnetism. We term this first discovered phenomenon atomic reconstruction ( AR) induced by uniaxial stress. Furthermore, our calculation results provide guidelines on the search for AR candidates. AR allows crystal domain engineering to control anisotropic properties of materials, including dielectricity, elasticity, electrical conduction, magnetism and superconductivity. A wide-ranging exploration of potential AR candidates would ensure that crystal domain engineering yields unconventional methods to design functional multidomain materials for a wide variety of purposes.

Automated summary

This paper presents a study on the effect of uniaxial stress on the magnetism and crystal structure of the intermetallic compound MnP. It is found that MnP exhibits an irreversible magnetization response at uniaxial stress as low as 0.04 GPa. Neutron diffraction experiments reveal the formation of crystal domains with pseudo-rotational symmetry unique to the MnP-type structure under uniaxial stress. The structure of the coexisting domains explains the stress-induced magnetism, a phenomenon termed atomic reconstruction (AR) induced by uniaxial stress. Furthermore, the study provides guidelines for searching for AR candidates.