Pressure-dependent electronic structures in multiferroic DyMnO3: A combined lifetime-broadening-suppressed x-ray absorption spectroscopy and ab initio electronic structure study

Variations in the electronic structure and structural distortion in multiferroic DyMnO3 were probed by synchrotron x-ray diffraction, lifetime-broadening-suppressed x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), and ab initio electronic structure calculations. The refined x-ray diffraction data enabled an observation of a diminished local Jahn-Teller distortion of Mn sites within MnO6 octahedra in DyMnO3 on applying the hydrostatic pressure. The intensity of the white line in Mn K-edge x-ray absorption spectra of DyMnO3 progressively increased with the increasing pressure. With the increasing hydrostatic pressure, the absorption threshold of an Mn K-edge spectra of DyMnO3 shifted toward a greater energy, whereas the pre-edge line slightly shifted to a smaller energy. We provide the spectral evidence for the pressure-induced bandwidth broadening for manganites. The intensity enhancement of the white line in Mn K-edge spectra is attributed to a diminished Jahn-Teller distortion of MnO6 octahedra in compressed DyMnO3. A comparison of the pressure-dependent XAS spectra with the ab initio electronic structure calculations and full calculations of multiple scattering using the code FDMNES shows the satisfactory agreement between experimental and calculated Mn K-edge spectra. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3490400]