Magnetic glasses and structural glasses: devitrification and a reentrant transition under CHUF protocol

TL;DR

This paper discusses the use of the CHUF protocol to identify phase coexistence and metastability in magnetic glasses, and explores its potential application to structural glasses like vitrified germanium.

Contribution

It highlights the effectiveness of the CHUF protocol in distinguishing metastable and stable phases in magnetic glasses and proposes its adaptation for structural glasses.

Findings

CHUF protocol reveals phase coexistence in magnetic glasses

It distinguishes metastable from stable phases in first-order transitions

Potential application to structural glasses like germanium under pressure

Abstract

A recent paper from Raveau's group asserts that the specially designed CHUF measurement protocol serves to bring out a special feature of the magnetic glass state. This protocol, enunciated and applied in our publications since over three years, allows establishing phase coexistence through macroscopic measurements and distinguishing the metastable and stable phases (amongst the coexisting phase fractions across a first order magnetic transition) of a glass-like arrested state. In view of the recent report of the vitrification of monoatomic germanium under pressure, we discuss the applicability of an analogous CHUP protocol for states across an arrested first order structural transition, and specifically in establishing whether the vitrification was partial or complete.