Nature and mechanism of the photoinduced spin transition in [Fe(PM-BiA)2(NCS)2].

Kouhei Ichiyanagi (1, 2) , Johan Hebert (2) , Loic Toupet (2) , Hervé Cailleau (2, 3) , Philippe Guionneau (4) , Jean-François Létard (4) , Eric Collet (2, 3)

1 Materials and Structures Laboratory
2 GMCM - Groupe matière condensée et matériaux
3 ERATO - Non-equilibrium Dynamics Project
4 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux

We report the investigation of a prototype cooperative photoinduced spin transition in [Fe(PM-BiA)2(NCS)2] by x-ray diffraction. The structural rearrangement accompanying the change of an electronic state between the low spin and the photoinduced out-of-equilibrium high spin phases is similar to the one occurring around the phase transition at thermal equilibrium. The cooperative behavior of the light-induced optical hysteresis and light-induced thermal hysteresis phenomena investigated here show a strong similarity with thermal hysteresis around first-order phase transitions, since they are driven by a domain nucleation process.

Mots clés: Magnetooptical effects; X-ray diffraction and scattering; Specific phase transitions; Other topics in equations of state; phase equilibria; and phase transitions

Domaines: Matériaux

Kouhei Ichiyanagi, Johan Hebert, Loic Toupet, Hervé Cailleau, Philippe Guionneau, et al.. Nature and mechanism of the photoinduced spin transition in [Fe(PM-BiA)2(NCS)2].. Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (1998-2015), 2006, 73 (6), p. 060408 (4 p.). ⟨10.1103/PhysRevB.73.060408⟩. ⟨hal-00020192⟩