Magnetic short and long range order in PbFe$_{1/2}$Ta$_{1/2}$O$_{3}$

PbFe$_{1/2}$Ta$_{1/2}$O$_{3}$ (PFT) belongs to the family of PbB$_{x}$B$_{1-x}$O$_{3}$ which have inherent chemical disorder at the B-site. Due to this disorder, a complex magnetic phase diagram is expected in the material. In this paper, we report experimental results of magnetic properties in PFT through macroscopic characterization, neutron scattering and M{o}ssbauer spectroscopy techniques. With these results we show for the first time that PbFe$_{1/2}$Ta$_{1/2}$O$_{3}$ behaves very similar to PbFe$_{1/2}$Nb$_{1/2}$O$_{3}$, i.e, it undergoes AF transition at 153 K and has a spinglass transition at 10 K, below which the antiferromagnetism coexists with spinglass. We suggest that the mechanism which is responsible for such a non-trivial ground state can be explained by a speromagnet-like spin arrangement similar to the one proposed for PbFe$_{1/2}$Nb$_{1/2}$O$_{3}$.

Microscopic Coexistence of Antiferromagnetic and Spin-Glass States

The disordered antiferromagnet pfn (pfns) is investigated in a wide temperature range by combining Mossbauer spectroscopy and neutron diffraction experiments. It is demonstrated that the magnetic ground state is a {it microscopic} coexistence of antiferromagnetic and a spin-glass orders. This speromagnet-like phase features frozen-in short-range fluctuations of the Fe$^{3+}$ magnetic moments that are transverse to the long-range ordered antiferromagnetic spin component.