Liquidlike Correlations in Single-Crystalline Y2Mo2O7: An Unconventional Spin Glass

Published

February 27, 2014

Author(s)

H. J. Silverstein, K. Fritsch, F. Flicker, A. M. Hallas, Jason S. Gardner, Yiming Qiu, G. Ehlers, A. T. Savici, Z. Yamani, K. A. Ross, B. D. Gaulin, M. J. P. Gingras, J. A. M. Paddison, K. Foyevtsova, R. Valenti, F. Hawthorne, C. R. Wiebe, H. D. Zhou

Abstract

The phenomenon of melting is among one of the most well studied phase transitions in condensed matter science. Even though the process is well-understood is a number of materials including simple metals, nanoparticles, ionic and molecular solids, and alloys [1-3], the analogy of melting can be extended to describe a host t of more complex order-disorder transitions. Some of the most celebrated examples include the description of vortex lines in type-ii superconductors [4], the spin liquid-spin solid transition [4] and the orbital liquid ¿solid transition [5]. However, for the additional degrees of freedom beyond translational atomic positions, the analogy becomes strained due to ever more complex forms of the Hamiltonian. For lattice topologies where the interactions are frustrated, spin and orbital degrees of freedom tend to induce emergent behavior such as spin-orbital coupled states [6], co-operative paramagnetism [7], and monopole formation due to the inability of such systems to settle into a non-degenerate ground state [8,9]. The pyrochlores are perhaps the most studied of these frustrated systems. Of these, Y₂Mo₂O₇ is arguably the most peculiar, whit a glassy transition that has been a topic of debate for the last three decades. We report here the first single crystal growth of this material and show the presence of clear, liquid-like correlations that freeze on the neutron scattering time scale.

Citation

Physical Review B

Volume

89

Issue

5

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Spin Glass, Seutron scattering

Citation

Silverstein, H. , Fritsch, K. , Flicker, F. , Hallas, A. , Gardner, J. , Qiu, Y. , Ehlers, G. , Savici, A. , Yamani, Z. , Ross, K. , Gaulin, B. , Gingras, M. , Paddison, J. , Foyevtsova, K. , Valenti, R. , Hawthorne, F. , Wiebe, C. and Zhou, H. (2014), Liquidlike Correlations in Single-Crystalline Y₂Mo₂O₇: An Unconventional Spin Glass, Physical Review B, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=912079 (Accessed July 17, 2024)