Evidence for a spin emulsion.
Magnetic small-angle neutron scattering from the itinerant electron magnet, Y(Mn1-xFex)2, in which ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic spin correlations compete, is found to follow an anomalous Q(-6) dependence (Q = 4pisintheta/lambda). It is suggested that this scattering is the magnetic analogue of that predicted for a structural microemulsion by Teubner's extension of conventional Kirste-Porod scattering to well-defined interfaces with extreme differences between mean and Gaussian curvatures. The "spin-emulsion-like" morphology of magnetic interfaces in Y(Mn1-xFex)2 is confirmed both qualitatively and quantitatively by a simple model based upon reported near neighbor Mn and Fe spin correlations.
Bentley
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Institut Laue-Langevin, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France. bentley@ill.fr
Cywinski
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