Anomalous quantum-critical spin dynamics in YFe2Al10

Abstract

We report results of a muon spin relaxation ($\mu$SR) study of YFe$_2$Al$_{10}$, a quasi-2D nearly-ferromagnetic metal in which unconventional quantum critical behavior is observed. No static Fe$^{2+}$ magnetism, with or without long-range order, is found down to 19~mK\@. The dynamic muon spin relaxation rate~$\lambda$ exhibits power-law divergences in temperature and magnetic field, the latter for fields that are too weak to affect the electronic spin dynamics directly. We attribute this to the proportionality of $\lambda(\omega_\mu,T)$ to the dynamic structure factor~$S(\omega_\mu,T)$, where $\omega_\mu \approx 10^5$--$10^7~\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ is the muon Zeeman frequency. These results suggest critical divergences of $S(\omega_\mu,T)$ in both temperature and frequency. Power-law scaling and a 2D dissipative quantum XY (2D-DQXY) model both yield forms for $S(\omega,T)$ that agree with neutron scattering data ($\omega \approx 10^{12}~\mathrm{s}^{-1}$). Extrapolation to $\mu$SR frequencies agrees semi-quantitatively with the observed temperature dependence of $\lambda(\omega_\mu,T)$, but predicts frequency independence for $\omega_\mu \ll T$ in extreme disagreement with experiment. We conclude that the quantum critical spin dynamics of YFe$_2$Al$_{10}$ are not well understood at low frequencies.