Anomalously field-susceptible spin soft-matter emerging in an electric-dipole liquid candidate

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of an unusual, soft-matter-like, highly inhomogeneous spin state in an organic dipole liquid candidate, characterized by slow dynamics and field-induced moments, revealing new frustration-driven spin phenomena.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of an anomalously field-susceptible, soft-matter-like spin state with slow fluctuations in an organic dipole liquid system, a novel finding in frustrated many-body systems.

Findings

Gigantic, staggered moments induced non-linearly by magnetic field.

Moments vanish at zero magnetic field.

Spin fluctuations slow down to below MHz at low temperatures.

Abstract

Mutual interactions in many-body systems bring about a variety of exotic phases, among which liquid-like states failing to order due to frustration are of keen interest. Recently, an organic system with an anisotropic triangular lattice of molecular dimers has been suggested to host a dipole liquid arising from intradimer charge-imbalance instability, possibly offering an unprecedented stage for the spin degrees of freedom. Here we show that an extraordinary unordered(unfrozen) spin state having soft-matter-like spatiotemporal characteristics is substantiated in this system. $^1$H NMR spectra and magnetization measurements indicate that gigantic, staggered moments are non-linearly and inhomogeneously induced by magnetic field whereas the moments vanish in the zero-field limit. The analysis of the NMR relaxation rate signifies that the moments fluctuate at a characteristic frequency slowing down to below MHz at low temperatures. The inhomogeneity, local correlation, and slow dynamics indicative of middle-scale dynamical correlation length suggest a novel frustration-driven spin clusterization.