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Direct evidence for a dynamical ground state in the highly frustrated Tb2Sn2O7 pyrochlore

F. Bert, P. Mendels, A. Olariu, N. Blanchard, G. Collin, A. Amato, C. Baines, A. D. Hillier

cond-mat.str-elarXiv:cond-mat/0603434

Abstract

MuSR experiments have been performed on powder sample of the "ordered spin ice" Tb2Sn2O7 pyrochlore compound. At base temperature (T=35mK) the muon relaxation is found to be of dynamical nature which demonstrates that strong fluctuations persist below the ferromagnetic transition (TC=0.87K). Hints of long range order appear as oscillations of the muon polarization when an external field is applied and also as a hysteretic behavior below TC. We propose a dynamical and strongly correlated scenario where dynamics results from fluctuation of large spin clusters with the "ordered spin ice" structure.

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