Phase-Transition Behavior in a Random-Anisotropy System

Authors

David J. Sellmyer, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
S. Nafis, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

September 1986

Comments

Published by American Physical Society. Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 1173 (1986). http://prl.aps.org. Copyright © 1986 American Physical Society. Permission to use.

Abstract

The character of the magnetic transition is studied for a magnetic glass with strong random-anisotropy and ferromagnetic interactions. Field-dependent ac susceptibility measurements are presented near the ordering temperature of Tb₆₄Fe₂₀Ga₁₆. The data are analyzed with a scaling theory for the singular susceptibility. An excellent collapse of the H, T data is obtained for reduced temperatures in the range 0.002-0.13. These results, which are compared with recent theoretical work, provide strong evidence for a true phase transition in a random-anisotropy system.