Prof. Way-Faung Pong, from Tamkang University in Taiwan, along with collaborators from ANSTO and Osaka University in Japan, recently published the first research paper from the cold neutron, triple axis spectrometer, SIKA.
Published in the Physical Review B, the team used SIKA to investigate the spatial spin-spin correlations and the spin relaxation processes in a single crystal of (Ni0.4Mn0.6)TiO3.
The parent compounds of this solid solution are antiferromagnetic with orthogonal easy axes of magnetisation. When mixed at a 40/60 ratio, the long range magnetic order is supressed and a glassy magnetic ground state is formed, possibly hosting magnetic texture, such as a skyrmion with possible technological applications for spintronics. Using SIKA the team worked on the dimensionality of the spin-spin correlations and the universality class of the spin system. It was found that the spatial correlations are over three times greater in the plane than out, but the relaxation processes in the two directions were within experimental error of each other.
Mesh scans for (Ni0.4Mn0.6)TiO3 around (0, 0, 1.5) reciprocal lattice point at (a) 1.5 K and (b) 30 K at Ef = 5.5meV. To remove nonmagnetic contributions, 30 K data were subtracted from 1.5 K data and results are shown in (c).
The full reference is: Solanki, RS; Hsieh, SH; Du, CH; Deng, G; Wang, CW; Gardner, JS; Tonomoto, H; Kimura, T and Pong, WF, Correlations and dynamics of spins in an XY-like spin-glass (Ni0.4Mn0.6)TiO3 single-crystal system, Phys. Rev. B. 95(2), Art. No. 024425 (2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.024425
Published: 23/03/2017