Possibility of Jahn-Teller glass formation

Abstract

Jahn-Teller ions in crystals exert forces on their neighbors and are, thereby, indirectly coupled by Ising-type interactions. By a simple physical argument it is shown that the sign of the interaction can be positive or negative, depending on the relative positions of the ion pairs. This is the condition for Jahn-Teller glass formation in randomly doped crystals. At low enough temperatures, the lattice would be randomly statically strained.