Mydosh J.A. Spin Glasses: An Experimental Introduction

Taylor & Francis Ltd, 1993. – 268 p. – ISBN: 0748400389.The phase of condensed matter known as spin glasses has become a vital and productive area of research. Historically, experiment has suggested unusual effects which have brought the theoretical study of the spin Glass Problem Onto The Same Footing As The Experimental Study. Experiments in the late 1960s on magnetic alloys presented interesting effects which were difficult to explain. It took until the mid 1970s for new developments in condensed matter theory to reveal that a sharp phase transition was at the root of the phenomenon. John Mydosh tells the story of the spin glasses in a phenomenological way. He describes these materials first from the premise of an experiment, using figures and tables rather than equations and derivations. This empirical approach then leads to recent advances in finding and measuring spin glasses which closely mimic the theoretical models. The author describes spin glasses as a state of magnetic ordering in third place after ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. He also pays heed to the importance of amorphous or glassy materials in contemporary physics while also describing the richness of analogues with many areas of research from astrophysics via molecular evolution to zoology.What is a spin glass?
How to create randomness?
Magnetic interactions (are necessary)
Magnetic anisotropy (plays a role)
Frustration (a far-reaching concept)
The freezing process (a first look)
Some historical background Further reading
Description of Related Concepts
Virtual-bound-state model
Kondo effect and weak moments
Giant moments
Spin glasses (a second visit)
Mictomagnetism (cluster glass)
Percolation and long-range magnetic order
Concentration regimes
Metallic glasses: amorphous magnets
Re-entrant spin glasses
Superparamagnetism
Magnetic insulators and semiconductors
Further reading and references
Basic Spin-Glass Phenomenon
High-temperature (T % Tr) experiments
Experiments spanning Tf
Low-temperature (T 4 Tf) experiments
Spin glasses in a field
Experimentalist’s (intuitive) picture
[b]Systems of Spin Glasses[/b]
Transition-metal solutes
Some rare-earth combinations
Amorphous (metallic) spin glasses
Semiconducting spin glasses
Insulating spin glasses
What is a good spin glass?
Models and Theories
Some historical perspectives
The Edwards-Anderson model
Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model
Instability of the SK solution
The TAP approach
How to break the replica symmetry
Physical meaning of RSB
Dynamics of the mean-field model
Droplet model
Fractal-cluster model
Non-Ising spin glasses
Computer simulations Further reading and references
Ideal Spin Glasses: Comparisons With Theory
What is an ‘ideal’ spin glass?
RbZCu&oxF~, an ideal 2D spin glass
Ideal 3D spin glasses
Future possibilities
Spin-Glass Analogues
Electric dipolar and quadrupolar glasses
Superconducting-glass phases
Random-field Ising model
Other ‘spin-offs’
Further reading and references
The End (for Now)
Symmetry breaking and phase space
Mesoscopic spin glasses
Recent theoretical progress
A final word