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Long-ranged spin-glass phase boundary in quasicrystal approximants

Fernand Denoel1,*, Karthika K. Thilakan2,†, Yu-Chin Huang2,‡, Takayuki Shiino1,§, Girma Hailu Gebresenbut2, Huibo Cao3, Ulrich Häussermann4, Cesar Pay Gómez2, Martin Sahlberg2 et al.

Roland Mathieu1,∥

  • *Contact author: fernand.denoel@gmail.com
  • †Contact author: karthika.kariattukarakaran-thilakan@kemi.uu.se
  • ‡Present address: Department of Materials and Manufacturing, Jönköping University, Box 1026, 551 11 Jönköping, Sweden.
  • §Present address: Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Carrer dels Til·lers, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.
  • ∥Contact author: roland.mathieu@angstrom.uu.se
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Phys. Rev. B 114, 084404 – Published 4 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/n3yq-b937

Abstract

We report the magnetic structure of the pseudo-Tsai Tb-Au-Si 1/1 approximant crystal (AC), a periodic crystal where the Tb3+ magnetic ions are arranged in a bcc packing as icosahedron nodes plus center decoration. While looking seemingly long ranged in dc magnetometry and neutron diffraction experiments, this crystal shows dynamical magnetic behavior consistent with a spin glass, including aging and memory effects. The relevance of the spin chirality subtended by three noncoplanar magnetic moments, and its order and disorder is discussed. The results are compared to those obtained for the regular Tsai Tb-Au-Si 1/1 AC and binary quasicrystals in order to establish an electronic phase diagram illustrating the boundary between long-ranged and short-ranged order in those systems.

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 084404– Published 4 August, 2026
  • Received 15 September 2025
  • Revised 18 May 2026
  • Accepted 13 July 2026
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