Lattice effects in YVO3 single crystal

In this paper we report on the lattice effects in the Mott insulator yttrium orthovanadate (YVO3). Linear thermal expansion and magnetostriction experiments have been performed on a single crystal, in the temperature range from 5 K to room temperature. The YVO3 orders antiferromagnetically at TN=116 K and orbital ordering was reported to appear below TOO=196 K. A first-order structural phase transition takes place at TS=77 K, accompanied by changes in the antiferromagnetic type of ordering as well as in the orbital-ordering type. Our results reveal that the thermal expansion measurement technique is a very powerful tool in order to clearly detect the existence of the above-mentioned transitions. The magnetostriction results point to the stability of the low-temperature-magnetic ground state under such high applied magnetic field.