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Supercooled spin liquid state in the frustrated pyrochlore Dy2Ti2O7

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

E.R. Kassner
A.B. Eyvazov
B. Pichler
T.J.S. Munsie
H.A. Dabkowska
G.M. Luke
J.C.S. Davis

Abstract

A "supercooled" liquid develops when a fluid does not crystallize upon cooling below its ordering temperature. Instead, the microscopic relaxation times diverge so rapidly that, upon further cooling, equilibration eventually becomes impossible and glass formation occurs. Classic supercooled liquids exhibit specific identifiers including microscopic relaxation times diverging on a Vogel-Tammann-Fulcher (VTF) trajectory, a Havriliak-Negami (HN) form for the dielectric function ε(ω, T), and a general Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts (KWW) form for time-domain relaxation. Recently, the pyrochlore Dy2Ti2O7 has become of interest because its frustrated magnetic interactions may, in theory, lead to highly exotic magnetic fluids. However, its true magnetic state at low temperatures has proven very difficult to identify unambiguously. Here, we introduce high-precision, boundary-free magnetization transport techniques based upon toroidal geometries and gain an improved understanding of the time- and frequency-dependent magnetization dynamics of Dy2Ti2O7. We demonstrate a virtually universal HN form for the magnetic susceptibility χ(ω, T), a general KWW form for the real-time magnetic relaxation, and a divergence of the microscopic magnetic relaxation rates with the VTF trajectory. Low-temperature Dy2Ti2O7 therefore exhibits the characteristics of a supercooled magnetic liquid. One implication is that this translationally invariant lattice of strongly correlated spins may be evolving toward an unprecedented magnetic glass state, perhaps due to many-body localization of spin. © 2015, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Date Published

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Volume

112

Issue

28

Number of Pages

8549-8554,

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84937135204&doi=10.1073%2fpnas.1511006112&partnerID=40&md5=fdc2f202d0d633ee966e1c4fc4bd4acc

DOI

10.1073/pnas.1511006112

Group (Lab)

J.C. Seamus Davis Group

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