Correlating supercooling limit and glass-like arrest of kinetics for disorder-broadened 1st order transitions: relevance to phase separation

Abstract

Coexisting ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) phases over a range of temperature (T) and magnetic field (H), have been reported in many materials. The 1st order FM-AFM transition is completed over a broad T (or H) range; this is ascribed to a landscape of free-energy density in systems with frozen disorder. Kinetic arrest, akin to glass transition, has been reported in doped CeFe$_2$, La-Pr-Ca-Mn-O, Gd$_5$Ge$_4$, etc., such that the coexisting fraction is frozen. The de-arrest, or melting, of this glass-like arrested state is seen to occur over a range of temperatures, implying a landscape (of T$_K$ or T$_g$). We argue that measuring magnetization along various specific paths in H-T space can help infer whether the landscapes of free-energy and for kinetic arrest are correlated. This will help to determine whether disorder affects glass formation, and the underlying 1st order transition, in contrasting (or similar) ways.