Local lattice disorder in the geometrically frustrated spin-glass pyrochlore Y{sub 2}Mo{sub 2}O{sub 7}

Journal Article · Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2000 · Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.62.R755· OSTI ID:20217110

Booth, C H ^[1]; Gardner, J S ^[2]; Kwei, G H ^[2]; Heffner, R H ^[2]; Bridges, F ^[3]; Subramanian, M A ^[4]

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1. Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Laboratories, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
3. Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064 (United States)
4. Dupont Central Research and Development, Experimental Station, Wilmington, Delaware 19880 (United States)

The geometrically frustrated spin-glass Y{sub 2}Mo{sub 2}O{sub 7} has been widely considered to be crystallographically ordered with a unique nearest-neighbor magnetic exchange interaction, J. To test this assertion, we present x-ray-absorption fine-structure results for the Mo and Y K edges as a function of temperature and compare them to results from a well-ordered pyrochlore, Tl{sub 2}Mn{sub 2}O{sub 7}. We find that the Mo-Mo pair distances are significantly disordered at approximately right angles to the Y-Mo pairs. These results strongly suggest that lattice disorder nucleates the spin-glass phase in this material. (c) 2000 The American Physical Society.

• OSTI ID: 20217110
• Journal Information: Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol. 62, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: 1 Jul 2000; ISSN 1098-0121
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
YTTRIUM OXIDES
MOLYBDENUM OXIDES
SPIN GLASS STATE
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
LATTICE PARAMETERS
ORDER-DISORDER TRANSFORMATIONS
X-RAY SPECTRA
FINE STRUCTURE
ABSORPTION SPECTRA
EXCHANGE INTERACTIONS
ELECTRON EXCHANGE
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
THEORETICAL DATA