Abstract
We investigate the spin-glass transition in the strongly frustrated well-known compound . A remarkable feature of this transition, widely discussed in the literature, is its anisotropic properties: The transition manifests itself in the magnetic susceptibly only along one axis, despite spins having no orbital component. We demonstrate, using neutron scattering, that below the transition temperature K, develops nanoscale surfboard-shaped antiferromagnetic regions in which the spins are aligned perpendicular to the axis which exhibits freezing. We show that the glass transition may result from the freezing of transverse fluctuations of the magnetization of these regions and we develop a mean-field replica theory of such a transition, revealing a type of magnetic van der Waals effect.
- Received 29 May 2019
- Revised 4 November 2020
- Accepted 24 May 2021
- Corrected 22 June 2021
- Corrected 20 July 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.103.L220404
©2021 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Corrections
22 June 2021
Correction: The surname of the fifth author contained an error and has been fixed.
20 July 2021
Second Correction: The omission of an acknowledgment statement has been fixed.