AC Magnetic Susceptibility and $\mu $SR Study of Spin Dynamics and the Onset of Magnetic Correlations in LiHo$_{x}$Y$_{1-x}$F$_{4}$

ORAL

Abstract

The onset of correlation effects in the magnetic Ho$^{3+}$-subsystem in LiHo$_{x}$Y$_{1-x}$F$_{4}$ single crystals is studied by comparing measurements and simulations of the field and frequency dependent magnetic AC susceptibility at 1.8 K and field and temperature dependent muon depolarization rates ($\mu $SR) for the concentrations x=0.0017, 0.0085, 0.041 and 0.0855. Specific features in the field and frequency dependence of in-phase and out-of-phase susceptibilities, in particular, broadening of peaks (dips) in $\chi $' ($\chi $'') that indicate enhanced relaxation processes at field induced avoided level crossings, can be associated with x-dependent changes of cross relaxation rates and the phonon bottleneck effect in the spin-lattice relaxation. The observed peak in the measured temperature dependent muon relaxation rate appears to be related to a maximum at the frequency 60 cm$^{-1}$ in the acoustic phonon density of states.

*Work supported by NSF grant DMR-0710525.

Authors

  • R.C. Johnson

    • Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
    • Boston College
  • B.Z. Malkin

    • Kazan Federal University
  • A. Lascialfari

    • Univ. of Milan
  • A. Amato

    • Paul Scherrer Institute
  • C. Baines

    • Paul Scherrer Institute
  • J.S. Lord

    • Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
  • S.R. Giblin

    • Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
  • B. Barbara

    • N\'eel Institute
  • M.J. Graf

    • Boston College