<p>The magnetic ground state of nominally stoichiometric single crystalline NbFe<sub>2</sub> is investigated by bulk magnetisation and muon spin relaxation techniques. Magnetic order clearly emerges below the critical temperature <em>T</em><sub><em>N</em></sub>=10.3 K and is dominated by randomly orientated quasi-static moments. The local field distribution observed by muons can be explained by the phenomenological Gaussian-broadened-Gaussian Kubo Toyabe relaxation function. The observed short range order could be used to describe a new magnetic ground state, but a helical spin density wave with an incommensurate amplitude modulation cannot be ruled out. The sensitivity of <em>μ</em>SR to the local magnetic field distribution in the vicinity of the quantum critical point (QCP) in NbFe<sub>2</sub> is clearly demonstrated via comparison with already published work. This suggests detailed measurements of the muon relaxation as the QCP is approached will reveal further details of the field distribution and fluctuations in Nb<sub>1−y</sub>Fe<sub>2+y</sub>Nb<sub>1−y</sub>Fe<sub>2+y</sub>.<br></p><p>Raw musr data for NbFe2 is stored, in standard nexus format<cite>. All necessary data is in the header files to view the time stamped decay spectra along with the temperature and field.</cite></p><p><cite>Research results based upon these data can bbe found at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2016.10.014</cite><br></p>
Funding
Frustration: more ways to emergent behaviour.
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council