Microscopic Coexistence of Antiferromagnetic and Spin-Glass States

Abstract

The disordered antiferromagnet \pfn (\pfns) is investigated in a wide temperature range by combining Mössbauer 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.