Unconventional spin-phonon coupling via the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction

Spin-phonon coupling (SPC) plays a critical role in numerous intriguing phenomena of transition metal oxides (TMOs). In 3d and 4 d TMOs, the coupling between spin and lattice degrees of freedom is known to originate from the exchange interaction. On the other hand, the origin of SPC in 5 d TMOs remains to be elucidated. To address this issue, we measured the phonon spectra of the 5 d pyrochlore iridate Y 2 Ir 2 O 7 using optical spectroscopy. Three infrared-active phonons soften below the Néel temperature of T N ≈ 170 K, indicating the existence of strong SPC. Simulations using density functional theory showed that the coupling is closely related to the Ir–O–Ir bond angle. A tight-binding model analysis reveals that this SPC is mainly mediated by the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction rather than the usual exchange interaction. We suggest that such unconventional SPC may be realized in other 5 d TMOs with non-collinear magnetic order.