Experimental observation of spin glass state in highly disordered quaternary Heusler alloy FeRuMnGa

Abstract

The realization of spin-glass (S-G) state in Heusler alloys is very rare despite the presence of inherent structural and elemental disorder in those compounds. Although a few half and full Heusler alloys are known to exhibit S-G state, there is hardly any manifestation of the same in cases of quaternary Heusler compounds. Here we report the observation of S-G state in a highly disordered equiatomic quaternary Heusler compound: FeRuMnGa, where the S-G state is in between of canonical S-G and cluster glass. Different intricate features of S-G state including non-equilibrium magnetic dynamics at low temperature in the compound are unveiled through our comprehensive magnetic, heat capacity and neutron diffraction studies. The structural disorder in the sample is neither conventional \textit{A2}- nor \textit{B2}-type while those two types are commonly observed for Heusler compounds. The presence of disorder also plays a significant role in electron transport properties of the alloy, which is reflected in its exhibition of semi-metallic behavior and anomalous Hall effect at low temperature.