Two Spin-State Crystallizations in LaCoO_{3}

Phys Rev Lett. 2020 Oct 23;125(17):177202. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.177202.

Abstract

We report a magnetostriction study of a perovskite LaCoO_{3} above 100 T using our state-of-the-art strain gauge to investigate an interplay between electron correlation and spin crossover. There has been a controversy regarding whether two novel phases in LaCoO_{3} at high magnetic fields result from crystallizations or Bose-Einstein condensation during spin crossover as manifestations of localization and delocalization in spin states, respectively. We show that both phases are crystallizations rather than condensations, and the two crystallizations are different, based on the observations that the two phases exhibit as magnetostriction plateaux with distinct heights. The crystallizations of spin states have emerged manifesting the localizations and interactions in spin crossover with large and cooperative lattice changes.