Crossover from itinerant-electron to localized-electron behavior in Sr(1-x)Ca(x)CrO3 perovskite solid solution.

Polycrystalline samples of the perovskite family Sr(1-x)Ca(x)CrO(3) have been prepared at high pressure and temperature in steps of 1/6 over the range 0 ≤ x ≤ 1. Rietveld analysis shows a series of structural phase transitions from cubic to tetragonal to orthorhombic with increasing x. The cubic samples have no long-range magnetic order; the other samples become antiferromagnetically ordered below a T(N) that increases with x. At ambient pressure, the electric transport properties of the cubic and tetragonal phases are semiconducting with a small (meV range) activation energy that increases with x; the orthorhombic phase exhibits variable-range hopping rather than the small-polaron behavior typically found for mixed-valent, localized-electron configurations. Above a pressure P=P(C), a smooth insulator-metal transition is found at a T(IM) that decreases with increasing P for a fixed x; P(C) increases with x. These phenomena are rationalized qualitatively with a π(∗)-band model having a width W(π) that approaches crossover from itinerant-electron to localized-electron behavior as W(π) decreases with increasing x. The smaller size of the Ca(2+) ion induces the structural changes and the greater acidity of the Ca(2+) ion is primarily responsible for narrowing W(π) as x increases.

Pressure-induced isostructural phase transition and correlation of FeAs coordination with the superconducting properties of 111-type Na(1-x)FeAs.

The effect of pressure on the crystalline structure and superconducting transition temperature (T(c)) of the 111-type Na(1-x)FeAs system using in situ high-pressure synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and diamond anvil cell techniques is studied. A pressure-induced tetragonal to tetragonal isostructural phase transition was found. The systematic evolution of the FeAs(4) tetrahedron as a function of pressure based on Rietveld refinements on the powder X-ray diffraction patterns was obtained. The nonmonotonic T(c)(P) behavior of Na(1-x)FeAs is found to correlate with the anomalies of the distance between the anion (As) and the iron layer as well as the bond angle of As-Fe-As for the two tetragonal phases. This behavior provides the key structural information in understanding the origin of the pressure dependence of T(c) for 111-type iron pnictide superconductors. A pressure-induced structural phase transition is also observed at 20 GPa.