Neel to spin-glass-like phase transition versus dilution in geometrically frustrated ZnCr2-2xGa2xO4

ZnCr2O4 undergoes a first order spin-Peierls-like phase transition at 12.5 K from a cubic spin liquid phase to a tetragonal Neel state. [S.-H. Lee, C. Broholm, T. H. Kim, W. Ratcliff II, and S-W. Cheong, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 3718 (2000)]. Using powder diffraction and single crystal polarized neutron scattering, we determined the complex spin structure of the Neel phase. This phase consisted of several magnetic domains with different characteristic wave vectors. This indicates that the tetragonal phase of ZnCr2-2xGa2xO4 is very close to a critical point surrounded by many different Neel states. We have also studied, using elastic and inelastic neutron scattering techniques, the effect of nonmagnetic dilution on magnetic correlations in ZnCr2-2xGa2xO4 (x=0.05 and 0.3). For x=0.05, the magnetic correlations do not change qualitatively from those in the pure material, except that the phase transition becomes second order. For x=0.3, the spin-spin correlations become short range. Interestingly, the spatial correlations of the frozen spins in the x=0.3 material are the same as those of the fluctuating moments in the pure and the weakly diluted materials.