Glassiness and exotic entropy scaling induced by quantum fluctuations in a disorder-free frustrated magnet.

Abstract

When spins are arranged in a lattice of triangular motif, the phenomenon of frustration leads to numerous energetically equivalent ground states, and results in exotic states such as spin liquid and spin ice. Here we report an alternative situation: a system, classically a liquid, freezes in the clean limit into a glassy state induced by quantum fluctuations. We call such glassy state a spin jam. The case in point is a frustrated magnet, where spins are arranged in a triangular network of bipyramids. Quantum corrections break the classical degeneracy into a set of aperiodic spin configurations forming local minima in a rugged energy landscape. This is established by mapping the problem into tiling with hexagonal tiles. The number of tessellations scales with the boundary length rather than its volume, showing the absence of local zero-energy modes. Low-temperature thermodynamics is discussed to compare it with other glassy materials.