Magnetic interactions in NiO at ultrahigh pressure

Abstract

Magnetic properties of NiO have been studied in the multimegabar pressure range by nuclear forward scattering of synchrotron radiation using the 67.4 keV M\"ossbauer transition of $^{61}\mathrm{Ni}$. The observed magnetic hyperfine splitting confirms the antiferromagnetic state of NiO up to 280 GPa, the highest pressure where magnetism has been observed so far, in any material. Remarkably, the hyperfine field increases from 8.47 T at ambient pressure to $\ensuremath{\sim}24$ T at the highest pressure, ruling out the possibility of a magnetic collapse. A joint x-ray diffraction and extended x-ray-absorption fine structure investigation reveals that NiO remains in a distorted sodium chloride structure in the entire studied pressure range. Ab initio calculations support the experimental observations, and further indicate a complete absence of Mott transition in NiO up to at least 280 GPa.