Inverse pressure-induced Mott transition in TiPO4

Abstract

TiPO4 shows interesting structural and magnetic properties as temperature and pressure are varied, such as a spin-Peierls phase transition and the development of incommensurate modulations of the lattice. Recently, high-pressure experiments for TiPO4 reported two structural phases appearing at high pressures, the so-called phases IV and V [M. Bykov et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 55, 15053 (2016).1433-785110.1002/anie.201608530]. The latter was shown to include the first example of fivefold O-coordinated P atoms in an inorganic phosphate compound. In this work, we characterize the electronic structure and other physical properties of these phases by means of ab initio calculations and investigate the structural transition. We find that the appearance of phases IV and V coincides with a collapse of the Mott insulating gap and quenching of magnetism in phase III as pressure is applied. Remarkably, our calculations show that in the high-pressure phase V, these features reappear, leading to an antiferromagnetic Mott insulating phase, with robust local moments.