Observation of re-entrant spin glass behavior in (Ce_1-xEr_x)Fe₂ compounds

¹ Magnetic Materials Laboratory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Mumbai-400076, India
² Tata Institute of Fundamental Research - Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai-400005, India

^a suresh@phy.iitb.ac.in

Received: 23 July 2010
Accepted: 6 September 2010

Abstract

Experimental evidence of re-entrant spin glass (RSG) state has been revealed in Er-doped CeFe₂ compounds. The zero-field–cooled - field-cooled bifurcation in dc magnetization, frequency dependence of freezing temperature, relaxation in zero-field–cooled magnetization and presence of large remanence have been discussed in detail. Frequency dependence is found to follow the critical slowing-down mechanism of the type: τ = τ₀ (T_f/T_SG−1)^−zv. The RSG state is found to be associated with the randomly magnetized clusters instead of atomic level randomness.