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Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 027601 (2005) [4 pages]

Orbital Freezing and Orbital Glass State in FeCr2S4

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R. Fichtl1, V. Tsurkan1,2, P. Lunkenheimer1, J. Hemberger1, V. Fritsch1, H.-A. Krug von Nidda1, E.-W. Scheidt3, and A. Loidl1
1Experimental Physics V, Center for Electronic Correlations and Magnetism, University of Augsburg, 86135 Augsburg, Germany
2Institute of Applied Physics, Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Chisinau, R. Moldova
3Chemical Physics and Material Science, Institute of Physics, University of Augsburg, 86135 Augsburg, Germany

Received 30 April 2004; revised 6 October 2004; published 18 January 2005

Low-temperature specific heat measurements and dielectric spectroscopy have been performed on polycrystalline and single-crystalline FeCr2S4, the single crystals showing a transition into a low-temperature orbital glass phase. The freezing of the orbital moments is revealed by a glasslike specific heat anomaly and by a clear relaxational behavior of the dielectric permittivity, exhibiting several hallmark features of glassy dynamics. The orbital relaxation dynamics continuously slows down over six decades in time, before at the lowest temperatures the glass transition becomes suppressed by quantum tunneling.

© 2005 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.027601
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.027601
PACS:
77.22.Gm, 64.70.Pf, 71.70.Ej, 75.40.–s
 
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