Glass-like features of crystalline solids in the quantum critical regime

Abstract: There has been growing interest in structural quantum phase transitions and quantum fluctuations of phonons in the research area of condensed matter physics. Here, we report the observation of glass-like features in the lattice heat capacity of a stuffed tridymite-type crystal, Ba1-xSrxAl2O4, a candidate compound of quantum paraelectrics. Substitutional chemical suppression of the ferroelectric phase transition temperature (TC) of Ba1-xSrxAl2O4 results in the disappearance of the TC at x=0.07. For the compositional window of x=0.2-0.5, the lattice heat capacity is enhanced below approximately 10 K and diverges from the T3-scaling law below 2.5 K. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments on single crystals reveal the weakly correlated disorder in the crystal structure that survives down to low temperature; this disorder is responsible for the observed excess heat capacity. These features can be considered one of the manifestations of structural quantum fluctuations.