Pressure induced ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic phase transition in transition metal chalcogenide Cr₃Te₄

We have carried out a detailed high-pressure investigation on the strongly correlated transition metal chalcogenideCr3Te4using Raman spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments, and density functional calculations, in an effort to correlate the structural evolution to the changes in physical properties. We find that the monoclinic structure remains stable up to 30 GPa, the highest pressure studied. The Cr-Te bond length and octahedral volume decrease drastically up to 7.6 GPa pressure. TheAgRaman mode shows a red shift up to 7.6 GPa, and theBgRaman mode shows a sudden drop around the same pressure. Further low-temperature Raman spectroscopic investigation shows that the Raman modes soften at the ferromagnetic to the antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase transition. This suggests a change in the magnetic ordering at high pressure. Our density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal the change in magnetic ground state from ferromagnetic state to AFM state above 7.6 GPa pressure, corroborating our experimental result.