Spin glasses and reentrant alloys

Abstract

Despite intensive study over the last decade, the magnetic ordering of alloy systems with competing interactions still poses basic unresolved conceptual problems. A brief review of the experimental situation is given, covering different techniques but with emphasis on information provided by Mössbauer experiments. In this context the local character, the natural time windows and the possibility of observing local polarization, all intrinsic properties of the Mössbauer effect, are advantages but can also be limitations. A comparison is made between the experiments and physical descriptions of these systems, such as the well known mean field model.