Static Critical Behavior of the Spin-Freezing Transition in the Geometrically Frustrated Pyrochlore Antiferromagnet Y2Mo2O7

TL;DR

This paper investigates the critical behavior of the spin-freezing transition in the geometrically frustrated pyrochlore antiferromagnet Y2Mo2O7, revealing thermodynamic phase transition characteristics similar to spin glasses despite minimal disorder.

Contribution

It provides evidence of a thermodynamic phase transition at the spin-freezing temperature with critical exponents, linking geometric frustration to spin-glass-like critical behavior.

Findings

Critical exponents  extgamma  28 and eta  08 are observed.

Transition exhibits features of a thermodynamic phase transition.

Behavior resembles that of random spin glasses despite low disorder.

Abstract

Some frustrated pyrochlore antiferromagnets, such as Y2Mo2O7, show a spin-freezing transition and magnetic irreversibilities below a temperature Tf similar to what is observed nonlinear magnetization measurements on Y2Mo2O7 that provide strong evidence that there is an underlying thermodynamic phase transition at Tf, which is characterized by critical exponents \gamma \approx 2.8 and \beta \approx 0.8. These values are typical of those found in random spin glasses, despite the fact that the level of random disorder in Y2Mo2O7 is immeasurably small.