Eminuscent phase in frustrated magnets: a challenge to quantum spin liquids

Abstract

A geometrically frustrated (GF) magnet consists of localised magnetic moments, spins, whose orientation cannot be arranged to simultaneously minimise their interaction energies. Such materials may host novel fascinating phases of matter, such as fluid-like states called quantum spin liquids. GF magnets have, like all solid-state systems, randomly located impurities whose magnetic moments may ``freeze'' at low temperatures, making the system enter a spin-glass state. We analyse the available data for spin-glass transitions in GF materials and find a surprising trend: the glass-transition temperature grows with decreasing impurity concentration and reaches a finite value in the impurity-free limit at a previously unidentified, ``hidden'', energy scale. We propose a scenario in which the interplay of interactions and entropy leads to a crossover in the permeability of the medium that assists glass freezing at low temperatures. This low-temperature, ``eminuscent'', phase may obscure or even destroy the widely-sought spin-liquid states in rather clean systems.

11+9 pages, 2 figures, 1 table

References in corpus (4)

• Spin Dynamics of the Spin-1/2 Kagome Lattice Antiferromagnet ZnCu_3(OH)_6Cl_2
• Pyrochlore Photons: The U(1) Spin Liquid in a S=1/2 Three-Dimensional Frustrated Magnet
• Spin-Liquid State in the S = 1/2 Hyperkagome Antiferromagnet Na4Ir3O8
• Spin Freezing in Geometrically Frustrated Antiferromagnets with Weak Disorder

Cited by in corpus (12)

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• Short-range order and hidden energy scale in geometrically frustrated magnets
• Origin of the hidden energy scale and the $f$-ratio in geometrically frustrated magnets
• Neutron Scattering Study of Fluctuating and Static Spin Correlations in the Anisotropic Spin Glass Fe${}_2$TiO${}_5$
• The nature of low-temperature spin-freezing in frustrated Kitaev magnets
• Zero-point entropies of spin-jam and spin-glass states in a frustrated magnet
• Quasispins of vacancy defects in Ising chains with nearest- and next-to-nearest-neighbour interactions
• Sharp spectroscopic fingerprints of disorder in an incompressible magnetic state
• Quasispins of vacancy defects and their interactions in disordered antiferromagnets
• Finite Spinon Density-of-States in Triangular-Lattice Delafossite TlYbSe${}_2$
• Complex Temperature-dependent Thermal Conductivity in a Sawtooth Chain Magnet Fe${}_2$SiSe${}_4$