We report evidence for the phase coexistence of orbital orderings of different symmetry in RVO 3 compounds with intermediate-size rare earths. Through a study by high-resolution x-ray powder diffraction and thermal expansion, we show that the competing orbital orderings are associated with the magnitude of the VO 6 octahedral tilting and magnetic exchange striction in these compounds and that the phase-separated state is stabilized by lattice strains.

We report evidence for phase coexistence of orbital orderings of different symmetry in SmVO 3 by high resolution X-Ray powder diffraction. The phase coexistence is triggered by an antiferromagnetic ordering of the vanadium spins near 130K, below an initial orbital ordering near 200K.The phase coexistence is the result of the intermediate ionic size of samarium coupled to exchange striction at the vanadium spin ordering.

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