Field-induced vortex-like textures as a probe of the critical line in reentrant spin glasses

Abstract

We study the evolution of the low-temperature field-induced magnetic defects observed under an applied magnetic field in a series of frustrated amorphous ferromagnets (Fe[Formula: see text]Mn[Formula: see text])[Formula: see text]P[Formula: see text]B[Formula: see text]Al[Formula: see text] ("a-Fe[Formula: see text]Mn[Formula: see text]"). Combining small-angle neutron scattering and Monte Carlo simulations, we show that the morphology of these defects resemble that of quasi-bidimensional spin vortices. They are observed in the so-called "reentrant" spin-glass (RSG) phase, up to the critical concentration [Formula: see text] which separates the RSG and "true" spin glass (SG) within the low temperature part of the magnetic phase diagram of a-Fe_1-xMn_x. These textures systematically decrease in size with increasing magnetic field or decreasing the average exchange interaction, and they finally disappear in the SG sample ([Formula: see text]), being replaced by field-induced correlations over finite length scales. We argue that the study of these nanoscopic defects could be used to probe the critical line between the RSG and SG phases.