Effect of Fe-site Substitution on Pressure-induced Spin Transition in SrFeO2

The effect of Fe-site substitution on structural and physical properties of the infinite layer iron oxide SrFeO2 was investigated under high pressure by 57Fe Mossbauer spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, and electrical resistance measurements using a diamond-anvil cell. Both 20% Mn- and Co-substituted samples exhibit spin transitions from a high-spin (S = 2) to an intermediate-spin (S = 1) state at Pc ∼ 32 GPa, which is much the same pressure 33 GPa observed in SrFeO2. This result indicates that the spin transition pressure is insensitive to the d-orbital electron counts [Mn2+ (d5), Fe2+ (d6), Co2+ (d7)], but is governed by the local structure around the Fe site.