Absence of magnetic order in Yb3Ga5O12: relation between phase transition and entropy in geometrically frustrated materials

2003/09/08 by P. Dalmas de Reotier, A. Yaouanc, P. C. M. Gubbens +3
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.91.167201

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 167201 (2003) · 5 pages, 2 figures

arxiv created 2003/09/08 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01

Abstract

From muon spin relaxation spectroscopy experiments, we show that the sharp peak (lambda type anomaly) detected by specific heat measurements at 54 mK for the ytterbium gallium garnet compound, Yb3Ga5O12, does not correspond to the onset of a magnetic phase transition, but to a pronounced building up of dynamical magnetic pair-correlations. Beside the lambda anomaly, a broad hump is observed at higher temperature in the specific heat of this garnet and other geometrically frustrated compounds. Comparing with other frustrated magnetic systems we infer that a ground state with long-range order is reached only when at least 1/4-1/3 of the magnetic entropy is released at the lambda transition.

Related

• The role of the entropy in the ground state formation of magnetically frustrated systems within their quantum critical regime
• Magnetic Density of States at Low Energy in Geometrically Frustrated Systems
• Low-temperature entropies and possible states in geometrically frustrated magnets
• Absence of magnetic order and emergence of unconventional fluctuations in J_{\rm eff} =1/2 triangular lattice antiferromagnet YbBO₃
• Magnetic ground state of a Jeff = 1/2 based frustrated triangular lattice antiferromagnet