Magnetic and structural dynamics in the multiple Coulomb phase CsNiCrF6

In materials with correlated disorder (i.e. not completely random nor completely ordered), new physics and functionalities can occur. Correlated disorder can be treated conveniently by field theories, so that the basic (crystal or magnetic) structure of the material becomes the empty vacuum of the theory, and fluctuations or excitations of the structure are the particles. In CsNiCrF6, both structural and magnetic correlated disorder can be identified. Here we propose to use inelastic polarised neutron scattering with multiple simultaneous energy settings to measure, in a single experiment, magnetic and structural excitations arising in the presence of correlated disorder. Measurement of such excitations is essential to understand the microscopic interactions that govern magnetic and thermodynamic properties, including anomalous glass-like thermal conductivity.