Near-room-temperature ferromagnetic ordering in the pressure-induced collapsed-tetragonal phase in SrCo 2 P 2
We present high-pressure electrical transport, magnetization, and single-crystal x-ray diffraction data on SrCo 2 P 2 single crystals, revealing a transition from the uncollapsed tetragonal (ucT) to the collapsed tetragonal (cT) phase >∼10 GPa. This structural transition is accompanied by ferromagnetic (FM) ordering with a Curie temperature up to 260 K. First-principles-based density functional theory calculations show that there is a first-order transition between ucT and cT phases, with an onset ∼10 GPa as well as the appearance of FM ordering in the cT phase. Above ∼30 GPa, the experimental signatures of the magnetic ordering vanish in a first-order-like manner, consistent with the theoretical calculation results, indicating that SrCo 2 P 2 is another example of the avoidance of quantum criticality in FM intermetallic compounds with almost room-temperature critical temperature. SrCo 2 P 2 provides clear evidence that the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties associated with the cT transition are strongly entangled and are not only qualitatively captured by our first-principles-based calculations but are quantitatively reproduced as well.