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Article
Quantum Percolation Phase Transition and Magnetoelectric Dipole Glass in Hexagonal Ferrites
Physical Review B
  • S. E. Rowley
  • Thomas Vojta, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • A. T. Jones
  • W. Guo
  • J. Oliveira
  • For full list of authors, see publisher's website., For full list of authors, see publisher's website.
Abstract

Hexagonal ferrites not only have enormous commercial impact (£2 billion/year in sales) due to applications that include ultrahigh-density memories, credit-card stripes, magnetic bar codes, small motors, and low-loss microwave devices, they also have fascinating magnetic and ferroelectric quantum properties at low temperatures. Here we report the results of tuning the magnetic ordering temperature in PbFe12-xGaxO19 to zero by chemical substitution x. The phase transition boundary is found to vary as TN ∼ (1-x/xc)2/3 with xc very close to the calculated spin percolation threshold, which we determine by Monte Carlo simulations, indicating that the zero-temperature phase transition is geometrically driven. We find that this produces a form of compositionally tuned, insulating, ferrimagnetic quantum criticality. Close to the zero-temperature phase transition, we observe the emergence of an electric dipole glass induced by magnetoelectric coupling. The strong frequency behavior of the glass freezing temperature Tm has a Vogel-Fulcher dependence with Tm finite, or suppressed below zero in the zero-frequency limit, depending on composition x. These quantum-mechanical properties, along with the multiplicity of low-lying modes near the zero-temperature phase transition, are likely to greatly extend applications of hexaferrites into the realm of quantum and cryogenic technologies.

Department(s)
Physics
Research Center/Lab(s)
Center for High Performance Computing Research
Keywords and Phrases
  • Ferrite,
  • Saturation magnetization,
  • Strontium hexaferrite,
  • Dielectric properties,
  • Ferrimagnetism,
  • Ferroelectricity,
  • Magnetic phase transitions,
  • Percolation,
  • Quantum phase transitions
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2017 American Physical Society (APS), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
7-1-2017
Publication Date
01 Jul 2017
Disciplines
Citation Information
S. E. Rowley, Thomas Vojta, A. T. Jones, W. Guo, et al.. "Quantum Percolation Phase Transition and Magnetoelectric Dipole Glass in Hexagonal Ferrites" Physical Review B Vol. 96 Iss. 2 (2017) ISSN: 2469-9950; 2469-9969
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/thomas-vojta/136/