Direct evidence for a dynamical ground state in the highly frustrated Tb(2)Sn(2)O(7) pyrochlore.
mSR experiments have been performed on a powder sample of the "ordered spin ice" Tb(2)Sn(2)O(7) pyrochlore. At base temperature (T=35 mK), the muon relaxation is found to be of dynamical nature, which demonstrates that strong fluctuations persist below the ferromagnetic transition (T(C)=0.87 K). Hints of long-range ordering appear as oscillations of the muon polarization when an external field is applied and also as a hysteretic behavior below T(C). We propose that dynamics results from fluctuations of clusters of correlated spins with the ordered spin ice structure.
Bert
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F
Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, UMR 8502, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France.
Mendels
P
P
Olariu
A
A
Blanchard
N
N
Collin
G
G
Amato
A
A
Baines
C
C
Hillier
A D
AD