Photo-induced low temperature structural transition in the “114” YBaFe4O7 oxide

• YBaFe4O7 undergoes a tetragonal to monoclinic transition below 190 K.
• A photoinduced structural transition is observed below 190 K.
• Melting of charge order is proposed to explain the photoinduced transition.

Synchrotron irradiation of the oxide YBaFe4O7.0 below 190 K converts the low temperature monoclinic structure to a higher symmetry tetragonal form analogous to the room temperature structure. This photo-induced metastable tetragonal form is stable even in the absence of irradiation over the range 4–60 K, however, above 60 K the photo-transition is reversible. These structural phenomena are correlated to the magnetic behaviour of this system, suggesting possible spin-lattice coupling. A scenario explaining the low temperature photo-induced transition is proposed, based on the different distributions of the valence electrons in the iron sub-lattice of the monoclinic and tetragonal phases.