Decay of spin-Peierls state in CuGeO3:Fe. The case of a strong disorder

Abstract

Influence of doping by iron impurity on spin-Peierls state in CuGeO3 is studied. ESR measurements for the frequency/temperature domain 60-450 GHz/ 1.8-300 K and specific heat data obtained for the interval 6-20 K show that insertion of 1% of Fe completely destroy both spin-Peierls and antiferromagnetic orders. Damping of long-range magnetic order is accompanied by onset at T<20 K of power asymptotics for magnetic susceptibility chi~T^-alpha and magnetic part of specific heat cm~T^(1-alpha), with the index alpha=0.35-0.37. This effect is characteristic to the limit of strong disorder for doped CuGeO3 and may reflect formation of the Griffiths phase at low temperatures in CuGeO3:Fe.