Evidence for a dynamical ground state in the frustrated pyrohafnate Tb2Hf2O7
Evidence for a dynamical ground state in the frustrated pyrohafnate Tb2Hf2O7
Anand, V. K.; Opherden, L.; Xu, J.; Adroja, D. T.; Hillier, A. D.; Biswas, P. K.; Herrmannsdörfer, T.; Uhlarz, M.; Hornung, J.; Wosnitza, J.
Abstract
We report the physical properties of Tb2Hf2O7 based on ac magnetic susceptibility χac(T ), dc magnetic susceptibility χ(T ), isothermal magnetization M(H), and heat capacity C(T ) measurements combined with muon spin relaxation (μSR) and neutron powder diffraction measurements. No evidence for long-range magnetic order is found down to 0.1 K. However, χac(T ) data present a frequency-dependent broad peak (near 0.9 K at 16 Hz) indicating slow spin dynamics. The slow spin dynamics is further evidenced from the μSR data (characterized by a stretched exponential behavior) which show persistent spin fluctuations down to 0.3 K. The neutron powder diffraction data collected at 0.1 K show a broad peak of magnetic origin (diffuse scattering) but no magnetic Bragg peaks. The analysis of the diffuse scattering data reveals a dominant antiferromagnetic interaction in agreement with the negative Weiss temperature. The absence of long-range magnetic order and the presence of slow spin dynamics and persistent spin fluctuations together reflect a dynamical ground state in Tb2Hf2O7.
Involved research facilities
- High Magnetic Field Laboratory (HLD)
-
Physical Review B 97(2018), 094402
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.97.094402
Cited 15 times in Scopus
Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-27179