The disordered ground state of quantum critical Ce(Ru$_{1-x}$Fe$_x$)$_2$Ge$_2$

ORAL

Abstract

We present neutron scattering data that show that magnetic ordering in the vicinity of a quantum critical point is restricted to short length scales. Remarkably, the spatial extent of the magnetic correlations is independent of the inter- moment distances. We argue that our data on Ce(Ru$_{1-x}$Fe$_x$)$_2$Ge$_2$ demonstrate that quantum fluctuations disorder the system and dilute the magnetic moments to such an extent that the response of the system is disorder dominated. Our observations naturally explain how E/T- scaling is possible in systems whose apparent dimensionality is above the upper critical dimension.

*The work was supported by the Missouri Research Board [RB-03-081], by the NSF [DMR-0405961 and DMR-0454672] and by the Dutch foundation FOM.

Authors

  • Wouter Montfrooij

  • Jagat Lamsal

    • University of Missouri
  • Meigan Aronson

    • University of Michigan
  • Marcus Bennett

    • University of Michigan
  • Anne de Visser

    • van der Waals-Zeeman Institute
  • Huang Ying Kai

    • van der Waals-Zeeman Institute
  • Nguyen Thanh Huy

    • van der Waals-Zeeman Institute
  • Mark Lumsden

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Mohana Yethiraj

    • Bragg Institute ANSTO
  • Yiming Qiu

    • National Institute of Standards and Technology