Evidence for Emergent Kagome Spin Configuration with Concomitant Transverse and Longitudinal Spin-Glass Freezing in the Chemically Ordered M-type Hexaferrite BaFe12O19

TL;DR

This study provides evidence that geometrical frustration can emerge in the long-range ordered ferrimagnetic phase of BaFe12O19, leading to spin-glass behavior and kagome spin configurations without site-disorder, supported by neutron scattering and magnetic susceptibility data.

Contribution

It is the first to demonstrate emergent geometrical frustration and spin-glass transitions in a chemically ordered ferrimagnet due to spin canting, challenging traditional views on frustration origins.

Findings

Emergence of kagome spin configuration in BaFe12O19

Concomitant transverse and longitudinal spin-glass freezing

Observation of two spin-glass transitions alongside long-range order

Abstract

Frustration effects in magnetic systems have traditionally been investigated considering pre-existing site-disorder or lattice geometry of the high-temperature paramagnetic phase. We present here evidence for emergence of geometrical frustration as a function of temperature due to spin canting in the long-range ordered (LRO) ferrimagnetic (FMI) phase of BaFe12O19 (BFO), an M-type hexaferrite of enormous technological applications. Results of neutron scattering and magnetic susceptibility studies on BFO are presented to show for the first time the emergence of highly degenerate kagome spin configuration for the basal plane spin component of BFO with concomitant freezing of transverse and longitudinal components of the spins leading to two spin-glass transitions in coexistence with the LRO FMI phase. Our results mimic the theoretical predictions for concentrated Heisenberg systems even though the source of frustration in BFO is the geometry of the lattice and not site-disorder. We believe that our findings will stimulate theoretical studies to unravel the physics of spin-glass transitions in LRO systems due to emergent geometrical frustration, an aspect that has remained unexplored so far. We also believe that this work will encourage further experimental studies in search of low temperature spin-glass transition(s) in LRO phases of various hexaferrites and even other LRO magnetic compounds with spins arranged on triangular, pyrochlore and spinel lattices without any substitutional disorder.