Abstract
The low-temperature specific heat, magnetic susceptibility, and thermal expansion are studied experimentally in the fcc boride HoB66 and compared to similar quantities in non-magnetic LuB66. The anomalous behaviour observed in HoB66 is explained within a glass-like picture together with magnetic subsystem ordering processes. The character of the observed anomalies suggests the existence of a spin-glass phase transition in HoB66 below a characteristic temperature of T s ≈ 0.98 K.
Acknowledgements
The work at Bryansk was supported by the RFBR (Grant 11-02-97-502 - r_center_a) and the Russian Ministry of Education and Science (Grant DSP 2.1.1/10747). The work at Ames was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, under contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11358.