Frustrated Magnetism in Mott Insulating (V1-xCrx)2 O3

Abstract

V2O3 famously features all four combinations of paramagnetic versus antiferromagnetic and metallic versus insulating states of matter in response to percent-level doping, pressure in the GPa range, and temperature below 300 K. Using time-of-flight neutron spectroscopy combined with density functional theory calculations of magnetic interactions, we have mapped and analyzed the inelastic magnetic neutron scattering cross section over a wide range of energy and momentum transfer in the chromium-stabilized antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic insulating phases. Our results reveal an important magnetic frustration and degeneracy of the paramagnetic insulating phase which is relieved by the rhombohedral-to-monoclinic transition at TN=185 K. This leads to the recognition that magnetic frustration is an inherent property of the paramagnetic phase in (V1-xCrx)2O3 and plays a key role in suppressing the magnetic long-range-ordering temperature and exposing a large phase space for the paramagnetic Mott metal-insulator transition to occur.