Low Temperature Spin-glass Behavior in Nonmagnetic Atom Disorder Compound Pr2CuIn3

We present the experimental results of ac and dc susceptibility, magnetization, magnetic relaxation, specific heat and electrical resistivity for hexagonal CaIn2-type polycrystalline Pr2CuIn3. Spin-glass state is confirmed to form in this system with a spin freezing temperature Tf∼5.4 K. The frequency dependent cusp in ac susceptibility, the evident irreversible magnetism and long-time magnetic relaxation behavior, and the absence of visible anomaly in temperature dependences of specific heat and electrical resistivity are the typical features characteristic of the spin-glass behaviors. A dynamical analysis of the ac susceptibility data gives further evidence for the spin-glass state in Pr2CuIn3. Formation of spin-glass state in Pr2CuIn3 seems to originate from the continued site randomness of the non-magnetic elements, which introduce the random distribution of exchange interactions between Pr atoms.