Speaker
Description
Electronic correlations lead to heavy quasiparticles in three-dimensional metals, and their collapse can destabilize magnetic moments. It is an open question whether there is an analogous instability in one-dimensional systems, unanswered due to the lack of metallic spin chains. Recently, using neutron scattering, we reported a metallic correlated frustrated spin-1/2 chain compound, Ti4MnBi2 [1,2]. Here, we present the positive muon spin rotation and relaxation (μSR), and magnetic susceptibility measurements study of Ti4MnBi2 single crystal. Zero-field μSR measurements revealed a dramatic slowing down of spin dynamics across 2 K, indicating a spin-freezing transition that aligns with the heat capacity and magnetic susceptibility data. In addition, we observed that less than 10% of spins became static. Interestingly, the other ~ 90% of spins in Ti4MnBi2 single crystal fluctuate in a wide frequency window, i.e., between Hz and THz range, mimicking the glassy relaxation. Our results provide a glimpse of how a metallic one-dimensional system tries to order, proving Ti4MnBi2 is very close to a quantum spin liquid.
REFERENCES
[1] Li, X.Y., Nocera, A., Foyevtsova, K. et al. Frustrated spin-1/2 chains in a correlated metal. Nat. Mater. 24, 716–721 (2025).
[2] Pandey, A. et al. Correlations and incipient antiferromagnetic order within the linear Mn chains of metallic Ti4MnBi2. Phys. Rev. B 102, 014406 (2020).
| xiyang.li@ubc.ca | |
| Funding Agency | Work at UBC (XYL, KK, MO, AH, MA) was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and through the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF). |
