Effects of substitution of Zn for Cu in the spin-Peierls cuprate,CuGeO3: The suppression of the spin-Peierls transition and the occurrence of a new spin-glass state

Abstract

The magnetic susceptibilities of polycrystalline ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{1\mathrm{-}\mathit{x}}$ ${\mathrm{Zn}}_{\mathit{x}}$ ${\mathrm{GeO}}_3$ were measured to study the effects of nonmagnetic impurities on the spin-Peierls transition. The transition temperature drastically reduces upon Zn doping and the spin-Peierls state collapses around x=0.03. The Zn doping causes another phase transition in the samples with 0.02≤x≤0.08, which proved to be spin-glass-like. The present Letter provides the first study of the spin-Peierls system with impurities.