Transition to long-range magnetic order in the highly frustrated insulating pyrochlore antiferromagnetGd2Ti2O7Journal Articles
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abstract
Experimental evidence from measurements of the a.c. and d.c. susceptibility,
and heat capacity data show that the pyrochlore structure oxide, Gd_2Ti_2O_7,
exhibits short range order that starts developing at 30K, as well as long range
magnetic order at $T\sim 1$K. The Curie-Weiss temperature, $\theta_{CW}$ =
-9.6K, is largely due to exchange interactions. Deviations from the Curie-Weiss
law occur below $\sim$10K while magnetic heat capacity contributions are found
at temperatures above 20K. A sharp maximum in the heat capacity at $T_c=0.97$K
signals a transition to a long range ordered state, with the magnetic specific
accounting for only $\sim$ 50% of the magnetic entropy. The heat capacity above
the phase transition can be modeled by assuming that a distribution of random
fields acts on the $^8S_{7/2}$ ground state for Gd$^{3+}$. There is no
frequency dependence to the a.c. susceptibility in either the short range or
long range ordered regimes, hence suggesting the absence of any spin-glassy
behavior. Mean field theoretical calculations show that no long range ordered
ground state exists for the conditions of nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic
exchange and long range dipolar couplings. At the mean-field level, long range
order at various commensurate or incommensurate wave vectors is found only upon
inclusion of exchange interactions beyond nearest-neighbor exchange and dipolar
coupling. The properties of Gd$_2Ti_2O_7 are compared with other geometrically
frustrated antiferromagnets such as the Gd_3Ga_5O_{12} gadolinium gallium
garnet, RE_2Ti_2O_7 pyrochlores where RE = Tb, Ho and Tm, and Heisenberg-type
pyrochlore such as Y_2Mo_2O_7, Tb_2Mo_2O_7, and spinels such as ZnFe_2O_4
