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Singly occupied 4 f antiferromagnetic insulators: CePO 4 and CeVO 4
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Singly occupied 4 f antiferromagnetic insulators: CePO 4 and CeVO 4

Hari Paudyal, Yogendra Limbu, Michael E. Flatté and Durga Paudyal
Physical review. B, Vol.112(15), 155112
10/2025
DOI: 10.1103/21wz-rcpn

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Abstract

Rare-earth containing wide band gap oxides, which provide spin-photon interface and narrow linewidth optical emission, are getting significant attention as the most promising candidate materials in advancing quantum transduction and memories. Here, from ab initio calculations, we identify antiferromagnetic ground states in structurally preferred monoclinic CePO4 and tetragonal CeVO4 exhibiting localized occupied and unoccupied Ce 4 f states with 4 f - 4 f transition characteristics. Interestingly, in CePO4 , O 2p and P 3p states hybridize negligibly with Ce 4 f states, while in CeVO 4 , V 3d and O 2p states hybridize and appear as extended states in between the occupied and unoccupied Ce 4 f states. Here, phonon calculations and analysis identify and differentiate Raman active phonon modes along with the spin phonon coupling of Ce in both CePO4 and CeVO 4 that ultimately lead to different 4 f ground-state crystal-field multiplets, which are critical to accurately describe electronic transitions for foundational quantum transduction and memories. Further, the identified C1 site symmetry of Ce, lacking inversion symmetry in CePO4 , is relevant for quantum memories and D2d site symmetry of Ce exhibiting inversion symmetry in CeVO4 is relevant for quantum transduction.

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