Relating supercooling and glass-like arrest of kinetics for phase separated systems: studies on doped CeFe$_2$ and (La,Pr,Ca)MnO$_3$

TL;DR

This study investigates the relationship between supercooling and kinetic arrest in phase-separated magnetic systems, revealing a universal behavior across different materials with disorder-induced glass-like kinetic arrest.

Contribution

It demonstrates that regions capable of supercooling to lower temperatures tend to undergo kinetic arrest at higher temperatures, suggesting a universal effect of disorder on glass-like kinetic arrest in magnetic materials.

Findings

Supercooled regions arrest at higher temperatures than expected.

Universal behavior observed in both inter-metallic and oxide systems.

Disorder influences the glass-like arrest of kinetics across different materials.

Abstract

Coexisting ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases over a range of temperature as well as magnetic field have been reported in many materials of current interest, showing disorder-broadened 1st order transitions. Anomalous history effects observed in magnetization and resistivity are being explained invoking the concepts of kinetic arrest akin to glass transitions. From magnetization measurements traversing novel paths in field-temperature space, we obtain the intriguing result that the regions of the sample which can be supercooled to lower temperatures undergo kinetic-arrest at higher temperatures, and vice versa. Our results are for two diverse systems viz. the inter-metallic doped CeFe$_2$ which has an antiferromagnetic ground state, and the oxide La-Pr-Ca-Mn-O which has a ferromagnetic ground state, indicating the possible universality of this effect of disorder on the widely encountered phenomenon of glass-like arrest of kinetics.