Coherent Spin Oscillations in a Disordered Magnet

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a spin liquid state in a disordered magnet, exhibiting long-lived coherent spin oscillations that can be manipulated and used for information encoding, contrasting with traditional glassy materials.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of a coherent spin liquid with long-lived oscillations and controllable spectral properties in a disordered magnetic system.

Findings

Presence of coherent spin oscillations lasting up to ten seconds

Spectral properties can be manipulated by external magnetic fields

Spin excitations can encode information at multiple frequencies

Abstract

Most materials freeze when cooled to sufficiently low temperature. We find that magnetic dipoles randomly distributed in a solid matrix condense into a spin liquid with spectral properties on cooling that are the diametric opposite of those for conventional glasses. Measurements of the non-linear magnetic dynamics in the low temperature liquid reveal the presence of coherent spin oscillations composed of hundreds of spins with lifetimes up to ten seconds. These excitations can be labeled by frequency, manipulated by the magnetic fields from a loop of wire, and permit the encoding of information at multiple frequencies simultaneously.