In this letter, we report on the single crystal growth and physical characterization of the distorted kagom\'{e} system Pr3Ga5SiO14. It is found that at zero magnetic field the system shows no magnetic order down to 0.035 K and exhibits a T2 behavior for the specific heat at low temperatures, indicative of a gapless 2D spin liquid state. Application of an applied field induces nanoscale islands of ordered spins, with a concomitant reduction of the T2 specific heat term. This state could be a possible ferro-spin nematic ordering stabilized out of an unusual spin liquid state.
@article{arxiv.0808.2819,
title = {Nanoscale freezing of the 2D spin liquid Pr$_{3}$Ga$_{5}$SiO$_{14}$},
author = {H. D. Zhou and C. R. Wiebe and L. Balicas and Y. -J. Jo and Y. Takano and M. J. Case and Y. Qiu and J. R. D. Copley and J. S. Gardner},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0808.2819},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
4 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Letters