title: Jamming behavior of domains in a spiral antiferromagnetic system.
abstract: Using resonant magnetic x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy, we show that the domains of a spiral antiferromagnet enter a jammed state at the onset of long-range order. We find that the slow thermal fluctuations of the domain walls exhibit a compressed exponential relaxation with an exponent of 1.5 found in a wide variety of solidlike jammed systems and can be qualitatively explained in terms of stress release in a stressed network. As the temperature decreases, the energy barrier for fluctuations becomes large enough to arrest further domain wall fluctuations, and the domains freeze into a spatial configuration within 10 K of the Néel temperature. The relaxation times can be fitted with the Vogel-Fulcher law as observed in polymers, glasses, and colloids, thereby indicating that the dynamics of domain walls in an ordered antiferromagnet exhibit some of the universal features associated with jamming behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
authors.forename: S-W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Seu
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dumesnil
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Sinha