Formation and partial melting of two types of spin-cluster glass behavior in vanadate spinel

Abstract

We report the doping effect on the various properties of spinels Co1−xZnxV2O4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.2). For the parent compounds, the rise in magnetization, the valley in thermal conductance, the transition from the ferromagnetic arrangement to non-collinear alignment indicated by the specific heat for the V sublattice, especially the frequency dependence of AC susceptibility around T1 = 59 K, verify the occurrence of the transition at T1 besides the ferrimagnetic transition at TC. The ferrimagnetic transition at TC induces the spin-cluster glass behavior and the transition at T1 yields the new spin-cluster glass (NSCG) behavior. As the Zn2+-doped content increases, the above phenomena are gradually weakening to vanishing, but the glassy behavior at TC still exists for all samples. Through the fourth-order perturbation theory, we discuss the reasons for the gradual vanishing of the transition at T1.