Magnetism in Quasicrystals

Francoise Hippert (1) , Jean-Jacques Prejean (2)

1 LMGP - Laboratoire des matériaux et du génie physique
2 NEEL - MagSup - Magnétisme et Supraconductivité

The present understanding of magnetic properties of quasicrystals (QCs) is reviewed. In AlMn and AlPdMn QCs, only a few Mn atoms, with concentration from a few % down to 10^-4 carry a localized magnetic moment. These moments are coupled via RKKY interactions, leading to a canonical spin glass ordering at low temperature. They also exhibit a Kondo effect and AlPdMn QCs turned out to be a model system for studying experimentally the competition between Kondo and RKKY interactions in the absence of long range magnetic ordering. Besides, the presence of localized moments has very unusual consequences on the electronic transport in AlPdMn QCs. In RMgZn and RMgCd QCs (R is a magnetic rare earth), with R concentration around 9%, a spin glass like freezing is observed. However the short range antiferromagnetic correlations detected above the freezing temperature are unusual and certainly influenced by the quasiperiodicity.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Domaines: Physique Générale [physics.gen-ph]

Francoise Hippert, Jean-Jacques Prejean. Magnetism in Quasicrystals. Philosophical Magazine, 2008, 88 (13-15), pp.2175-2190. ⟨10.1080/14786430801971482⟩. ⟨hal-00513874⟩