• Accepted Paper

Dynamical magnetism in the disordered cubic lattice material γ-Ba3CoNb2O9

Fanjun Xu, Ralf Feyerherm, Cecilie Glittum, Thomas J. Hicken, Hubertus Luetkens, Jonas A. Krieger, Cintli Aguilar-Maldonado, Sven Luther, Lucy K. Saunders, Sarah Day, Clemens Ritter, Peter Fouquet, Margarita Russina, Karel Prokeš, A. T. M. Nazmul Islam, and Bella Lake

Phys. Rev. B - Accepted 22 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jsvt-jc4l

Abstract

γ-Ba3CoNb2O9 realizes a disordered simple-cubic spin-1/2 lattice in which Co2+ ions randomly occupy one-third of the sites, placing the system just above the site-percolation threshold for magnetic order. Specific-heat, susceptibility, neutron spin-echo, and muon spin-rotation measurements reveal a broad thermodynamic crossover, short-range magnetic correlations, and persistent fast spin dynamics down to at least 0.1 K, with no evidence for static order or conventional spin-glass freezing within the experimental time windows. Monte Carlo simulations yield a broad distribution of orphan spins, finite clusters, and an infinite network. The weakly correlated spin fraction (≈8.2%) inferred phenomenologically from magnetization is consistent with the calculated orphan-spin fraction (≈8.8%). Exact diagonalization of a diluted S=1/2 Heisenberg model captures the broad magnetic specific-heat anomaly and supports the coexistence of weakly and strongly correlated spin environments. These results support a picture in which spin-1/2 quantum fluctuations, together with dilution and proximity to the percolation threshold, can support a disorder-driven dynamical state with short-range correlations in three dimensions, distinct from both classical spin glasses and geometrically frustrated quantum spin liquids.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation

If the author has provided any supplemental materials with this article they will be available upon publication of the version of record.

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation