Publication: Glassy Relaxation Dynamics in the Two-Dimensional Heavy Fermion Antiferromagnet CeSiI

Congratulations to Kierstin and Joon Young on their recent publication in Nano Letters! By fabricating a set of CeSiI devices with different numbers of van der Waals layers from bulk to 2D and protecting the devices from degradation by air, they were able to perform careful magnetotransport measurements as a function of thickness, temperature, and time. below the Neel temperature, their measurements uncovered evidence of both 2D antiferromagnetism and the slow relaxation dynamics typical of 3D glassy systems. Their exciting discovery of this phase coexistence and technical advances in handling air-sensitive materials opens the door to further investigations of phase transitions, quantum criticality, and unconventional magnetism in quantum materials.