Phase-coexistence in the manganese-oxide compounds or manganites with colossal magneto-resistance (CMR) has been generally considered to be an inhomogeneous ground state. An alternative explanation of phase-coexistence as the manifestation of a disorder-broadened first order magnetic phase transition being interrupted by the glasslike arrest of kinetics is now gradually gaining ground. This kinetic arrest of a first order phase transitions, between two states with long-range magnetic order, has actually been observed in various other classes of magnetic materials in addition to the CMR manganites. The underlying common features of this kinetic arrest of a first order phase transition are discussed in terms of the phenomenology of glasses. The possible manifestations of such glass-like arrested states across disorder-influenced first order phase transitions in dielectric solids and in multiferroic materials, are also discussed.
Highly ordered Bi2FeMnO6 epitaxial thin films have been successfully grown on SrTiO3 substrate. Both synchrotron X-ray reciprocal space mapping and high resolution transmission electron microscopy confirmed the alternative alignment of Fe and Mn along [111] direction of Bi2FeMnO6 films. Magnetic and ferroelectric properties of Bi2FeMnO6 films are characterized and analyzed. The room-temperature ferroelectricity is well kept in Bi2FeMnO6 film as expected. However, it is very interesting that Bi2FeMnO6 film exhibits a typical spin-glass behavior and very weak magnetism rather than a ferri/ferrom…
Samarium doped Na$_2$O-ZnO-TeO$_2$ (NZT) glasses were prepared by the melt quenching method. The glass-forming ability and glass stability of prepared glass was estimated by Hruby parameter using Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA) and Thermo-gravimetric Analysis (TGA). The study of FTIR spectra and X-ray diffraction described the ionic nature and the amorphous pattern of glass respectively. The absorption peaks were observed for the transitions 6H5/2-4P3/2 at 402 nm,6H5/2-4M19/2 at 418 nm, 6H5/2-4I15/2 at 462 nm and 6H5/2-4I11/2 at 478 nm in the absorption spectra. The optical band gap energy…
Magnetic and dielectric studies of SrCu3Ti4O12 carried out over 5-300K confirm antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering of Cu-spins at TN =23K. Dielectric constant ε' measured across 1Hz-1MHz signifies quantum paraelectric character, Barrett-fittable almost down to TN. Competition of athermal fluctuations and the literature-reported magneto-phonon-softening near TN manifests a maiden quantum paraelectric glass (QPG) state. Emergent AFM-field tunes the otherwise quantum ordering (at absolute-zero) of the dipoles to finite-temperature kinetic glass transition; spectral dispersion of dielectric constant …
Tetragonal distorted spinel of CuMn2-xTixO4 (x = 0, 0.25 and 0.50) was prepared by solid state reaction method followed by neutron diffraction, FTIR spectroscopy, dielectric spectroscopy and magnetization measurements. The neutron diffraction and FTIR spectroscopy provide the information regarding phase formation. But, the magnetic susceptibility clearly shows the ferri-magnetic order below 76K associated with meta-magnetic state which turns to spin-glass behaviour upon Ti-substitution for Mn in CuMn2O4. In addition, the room temperature M(H) of all the spinels are described by the Arrott's pl…
Manganites exhibit various types of electronic phenomena, and these electronic characteristics can be controlled by carrier doping. Herein, we report the dielectric and magnetic properties of electron-doped manganite Ca$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$Mn$_{0.85}$Sb$_{0.15}$O$_3$ ($x$ = 0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3). The temperature dependence of the real part of the dielectric constant exhibits a broad and large peak just below the kink temperature of magnetization and a sharp decrease at lower temperatures, accompanied by an anomaly of the imaginary part. Furthermore, isovalent Sr substitution enhances the temperature …
Amorphous solids or glasses are known to exhibit stretched-exponential decay over broad time intervals in several of their macroscopic observables: intermediate scattering function, dielectric relaxation modulus, time-elastic modulus etc. This behaviour is prominent especially near the glass transition. In this Letter we show, on the example of dielectric relaxation, that stretched-exponential relaxation is intimately related to the peculiar lattice dynamics of glasses. By reformulating the Lorentz model of dielectric matter in a more general form, we express the dielectric response as a funct…
We propose experimental verification and theoretical explanation of magnetic anomalies in the complex Fe-contained double perovskite multiferroics like PbFe$_{1/2}$Nb$_{1/2}$O$_3$. The theoretical part is based on our model of coexistence of long-range magnetic order and spin glass in the above substances. In our model, the exchange interaction is anisotropic, coupling antiferromagnetically $z$ spin components of Fe$^{3+}$ ions. At the same time, the $xy$ components are coupled by much weaker exchange interaction of ferromagnetic sign. In the system with spatial disorder (half of corresponding…
Ferroelectric glass-ceramics are promising composite materials with dual properties, of high dielectric permittivity and high dielectric breakdown strength. In this context, new phosphate glass-ceramics 2BaO-0.5Na2O 2.5[(1-x)Nb2O5 xWO3]-1P2O5 (x=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4) designated as B0, B1, B2, B3, B4 respectively, were prepared by the controlled crystallization technology and then crystallized at high temperature of 760 °C for 10 hours. Subsequently, the obtained glass-ceramics were studied by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman, impedance spectros…
Low frequency dielectric measurements on plexiglass (PMMA) show that cooling and heating the sample at constant rate give an hysteretic dependence on temperature of the dielectric constant $ε$. A temporary stop of cooling produces a downward relaxation of $ε$. Two main features are observed i) when cooling is resumed $ε$ goes back to the values obtained without the cooling stop (i.e. the low temperature state is independent of the cooling history) ii) upon reheating $ε$ keeps the memory of the aging history ({\it Memory}). The analogies and differences with similar experiments done in spin gla…
Hexakis(n-alkyloxy)triphenylene) (HATn) consisting of an aromatic triphenylene core and alkyl side chains are model discotic liquid crystal (DLC) systems forming a columnar mesophase. In the mesophase, the molecules of HATn self-assemble in columns, which has one-dimensional high charge carrier mobility along the columns. Here, a homologous series of HATn with different length of the alkyl chain (n=5,6,8,10,12) is investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) and advanced calorimetric techniques including fast scanning calorimetry (FSC) and…
Using dielectric spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry, we have performed a detailed investigation of the influence of water uptake on the translational and reorientational glassy dynamics in the typical ionic liquid 1-Butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium chloride. From a careful analysis of the measured dielectric permittivity and conductivity spectra, we find a significant acceleration of cation reorientation and a marked increase of the ionic conductivity for higher water contents. The latter effect mainly arises due to a strong impact of water content on the glass temperature, which for…
Phase, microstructural, dielectric and ferroelectric properties investigation clearly reveal that the charge imbalance created due to alio-valent Gd3+-ion substitution at Pb2+ site in lead magnesium niobate should be compensated by changing B-site cation ratio instead of creating A-site or B-site vacancies. Microstructure analysis along with elemental mapping exhibit segregation of magnesium oxide (MgO) and gadolinium niobate (GdNbO4) phase, which is observed to remain invariant to the charge compensation mechanism. Fitting of frequency dependent temperature of dielectric constant maximum Tm (…
The crystal structure of hexagonal-Sr0.6Ba0.4MnO3 allows various competing superexchange interactions, leading to intriguing magnetic properties. Local structural changes modify overlapping between Mn and oxygen ions with temperature. Calculations based on our model spin-Hamiltonian reveal that the dominant linear antiferromagnetic superexchange interaction between the oxygen-linked Mn4+ ions results in short range correlations (SRC), manifesting a smooth drop in magnetization below 325K. Dominance of superexchange interaction changes its allegiance towards the non-linear oxygen-linked Mn-O-Mn…
We investigate the time-resolved photoelectric response of WSe$_2$ crystals on common glass and flexible polyimide substrates to determine the effect of the dielectric environment on the speed of the photodetectors. We show that varying the substrate material can alter the speed-limiting mechanism: while the detectors on polyimide are RC limited, those on glass are limited by slower excitonic diffusion processes. We attribute this to a shortening of the depletion layer at the metal electrode/WSe2 interface caused by the higher dielectric screening of glass compared to polyimide. The photodetec…
The sluggish and heterogeneous dynamics of glass forming liquids is frequently associated to the transient coexistence of two phases of particles, respectively with an high and low mobility. In the absence of a dynamical order parameter that acquires a transient bimodal shape, these phases are commonly identified empirically, which makes difficult investigating their relation with the structural properties of the system. Here we show that the distribution of single particle diffusivities can be accessed within a Continuous Time Random Walk description of the intermittent motion, and that this …
