A new Phenomenon: Glass Paramagnetism. Further Experimental and Theoretical Details

Abstract

In a recent manuscript, the discovery of a new phenomenon in glasses has been reported: glass paramagnetism, that is the intrinsic magnetisation developed by a substance that has failed to crystallise in a temperature quench when placed in an external magnetic field. The field-(H) and especially the temperature-(T ) dependence of the intrinsic magnetisation Mintr = Mintr(H, T ) is very unexpected, with broad peaks developing for high H/T and marked T -oscillations at fixed H for intermediate-to-high temperatures. In this work we present details on the samples, new data for other glassy systems and especially the theoretical background that is capable of explaining most of the experimental data. New phenomena are however emerging from these data, for example a deviation from the Curie-like behaviour of the magnetic susceptibility (Mintr/H at low fields) due to the glassy structure alone as well as evidence for new and intriguing quantum coherence effects at the lowest temperatures. Contents