Exploration of Griffiths phase, spin glass behaviour and memory effect in a frustrated Al2MnCoO7 pyrochlore compound

Abstract

Al2MnCoO7 pyrochlore compound has been synthesized following the multistep solid-state ceramics route. The compound exhibits a monoclinic structure, which was confirmed through the X-ray diffraction pattern analysis. The magnetization measurements in both zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) modes indicate that the compound undergoes a phase transition from paramagnetic (PM) to antiferromagnetic (AFM) state at the Néel transition temperature TN ∼31 K. Notably, below TN, there is a substantial discrepancy between the ZFC and FC curves, which can be ascribed to the existence of competing ferromagnetic (FM) and AFM interactions, resulting in a glassy behaviour. Additionally, the compound demonstrates a Griffiths phase above TN, signifying the presence of ferromagnetic clusters within the PM region of the material. The spin-glass behaviour is confirmed by the shift of maxima towards higher temperatures with increasing frequency in the ac susceptibility measurement. The memory effect also confirms the spin-glass nature of the compound. The Arrott's plots confirmed that the magnetic phase transition in the material to be a second-order type. Additionally, the material exhibited a maximum magnetic entropy change (−ΔS) value of 1.08 J/kg.K and a relative cooling power of 36.60 J/kg under an applied magnetic field of 5 T.