Trigonal Distortion Driven Ground States in VX3 (X = Br and I)

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Pathiraja, Chamini S., Wong, Deniz, Schulz, Christian, Chuang, Yi-De, Shao, Yu-Cheng, Freelon, Byron
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866910237944971264
author Pathiraja, Chamini S.
Wong, Deniz
Schulz, Christian
Chuang, Yi-De
Shao, Yu-Cheng
Freelon, Byron
author_facet Pathiraja, Chamini S.
Wong, Deniz
Schulz, Christian
Chuang, Yi-De
Shao, Yu-Cheng
Freelon, Byron
contents Transition-metal halides V$X_3$ ($X$ = Br and I) have emerged as promising candidates for two dimensional spintronic and quantum applications due to their layer-dependent magnetism and tunable electronic states. However, experimental insights into their ground state electronic structures remain limited. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation of V$X_3$ using high resolution resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) combined with ligand field multiplet calculations. The RIXS spectra reveal distinct $dd$ and charge-transfer excitations, allowing precise determination of electronic structure parameters, including the crystal field splitting, trigonal distortion, and Racah parameters. The determined parameters showed clear variation, indicating an increase in covalency from Br to I. The trigonal distortion parameters $Δ_{D_{3d}}$ were determined to be -0.096 eV in VBr$_3$ and 0.07 eV in VI$_3$, indicating a sign opposition between the two compounds, reflecting good agreement with experimental RIXS data. Cluster model calculations yield a high-spin V$^{3+}$ $(S = 1)$ configuration, with an $e'^2_g$ ground state in VBr$_3$ and an $e'^1_ga^1_{1g}$ ground state in VI$_3$, consistent with trigonal elongation and compression, respectively. Our findings provide the most complete experimental determination of the low energy electronic structure in V$X_3$, offering valuable insights for designing 2D magnetic and spintronic materials based on vanadium halides.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_18168
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Trigonal Distortion Driven Ground States in VX3 (X = Br and I)
Pathiraja, Chamini S.
Wong, Deniz
Schulz, Christian
Chuang, Yi-De
Shao, Yu-Cheng
Freelon, Byron
Materials Science
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Transition-metal halides V$X_3$ ($X$ = Br and I) have emerged as promising candidates for two dimensional spintronic and quantum applications due to their layer-dependent magnetism and tunable electronic states. However, experimental insights into their ground state electronic structures remain limited. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation of V$X_3$ using high resolution resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) combined with ligand field multiplet calculations. The RIXS spectra reveal distinct $dd$ and charge-transfer excitations, allowing precise determination of electronic structure parameters, including the crystal field splitting, trigonal distortion, and Racah parameters. The determined parameters showed clear variation, indicating an increase in covalency from Br to I. The trigonal distortion parameters $Δ_{D_{3d}}$ were determined to be -0.096 eV in VBr$_3$ and 0.07 eV in VI$_3$, indicating a sign opposition between the two compounds, reflecting good agreement with experimental RIXS data. Cluster model calculations yield a high-spin V$^{3+}$ $(S = 1)$ configuration, with an $e'^2_g$ ground state in VBr$_3$ and an $e'^1_ga^1_{1g}$ ground state in VI$_3$, consistent with trigonal elongation and compression, respectively. Our findings provide the most complete experimental determination of the low energy electronic structure in V$X_3$, offering valuable insights for designing 2D magnetic and spintronic materials based on vanadium halides.
title Trigonal Distortion Driven Ground States in VX3 (X = Br and I)
topic Materials Science
Strongly Correlated Electrons
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.18168