Structural Fluctuations in the Spin Liquid State of Tb2Ti2O7
Abstract
High resolution X-ray scattering measurements on single crystal Tb2Ti2O7
reveal finite structural correlations at low temperatures. This geometrically
frustrated pyrochlore is known to exhibit a spin liquid, or cooperative
paramagnetic state, at temperatures below ~ 20 K. Parametric studies of
structural Bragg peaks appropriate to the Fd$\bar{3}$m space group of Tb2Ti2O7
reveal substantial broadening and peak intensity reduction in the temperature
regime 20 K to 300 mK. We also observe a small, anomalous lattice expansion on
cooling below a density maximum at ~ 18 K. These measurements are consistent
with the development of fluctuations above a cooperative Jahn-Teller,
cubic-tetragonal phase transition at very low temperatures.