Broad 1st Order Phase Transitions: phase coexistence, unusual hysteresis and glasslike kinetic arrest

TL;DR

This paper explores the complex behavior of broad first-order phase transitions influenced by two control variables, highlighting phenomena like phase coexistence, hysteresis, and kinetic arrest, with implications for multiferroics and disordered alloys.

Contribution

It develops a comprehensive phenomenology for broad first-order transitions with two control variables, introducing the CHUF protocol to study kinetic arrest and phase coexistence.

Findings

Identification of phase coexistence due to kinetic arrest.

Development of the CHUF experimental protocol.

Insights into disorder effects on phase transition dynamics.

Abstract

We discuss the phenomenology of phase transitions studied with two control variables. Such measurements have become routine with magnetic field and temperature being varied for 1st order magnetic transitions with an ease not conceivable with pressure and temperature. Similar ease may be possible with electric field as the second control variable, as in current studies on multiferroics. We develop this phenomenology for broad 1st order transitions that occur over a range of the control variable, as is common in substitutional alloys with inherent quenched disorder, including the possibility of a glasslike arrest of the transition occurring within this range of either control variable. The interrupted transition then results in the two competing phases coexisting to the lowest temperature. The new experimental protocol with acronym CHUF, where the sample is cooled and heated under different values of the second control variable, allows a detailed study of glasslike arrest of kinetics of the phase transformation. The many experimental studies on 1st order magnetic transitions in a large number of materials, that provide the cause for this phenomenology, shall be discussed subsequently.