Infrared- and Raman-Spectroscopy Measurements of a Transition in the Crystal Structure and a Closing of the Energy Gap of BiTeI under Pressure

BiTeI is a giant Rashba spin splitting system, in which a noncentrosymmetric topological phase has recently been suggested to appear under high pressure. We investigated the optical properties of this compound, reflectivity and transmission, under pressures up to 15 GPa. The gap feature in the optical conductivity vanishes above p~9 GPa and does not reappear up to at least 15 GPa. The plasma edge, associated with intrinsically doped charge carriers, is smeared out through a phase transition at 9 GPa. Using high-pressure Raman spectroscopy, we follow the vibrational modes of BiTeI, providing additional clear evidence that the transition at 9 GPa involves a change of crystal structure. This change of crystal structure possibly inhibits the high-pressure topological phase from occurring.

UNIGE affiliation entities

Faculté des sciences / Section de physique / Département de physique de la matière quantique

UNIGE research groups

Funding

Swiss National Science Foundation - 200020
Swiss National Science Foundation - 135085

Citation (ISO format)

TRAN, Michaël et al. Infrared- and Raman-Spectroscopy Measurements of a Transition in the Crystal Structure and a Closing of the Energy Gap of BiTeI under Pressure. In: Physical review letters, 2014, vol. 112, n° 4, p. 047402. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.047402

Article (Published version)

Identifiers

PID : unige:34075
DOI : 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.047402

Journal ISSN

0031-9007

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Creation

03/02/2014 13:39:00

First validation

03/02/2014 13:39:00

Update

14/03/2023 20:57:14

Status update

14/03/2023 20:57:14

Last indexation

30/10/2024 16:13:12

Infrared- and Raman-Spectroscopy Measurements of a Transition in the Crystal Structure and a Closing of the Energy Gap of BiTeI under Pressure

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Abstract