Metamagnetic transitions in an Ising antiferromagnet

An Ising antiferromagnet of arbitrary spin is examined in the molecular field approximation. It is found that the field induced transition can be of four different types: second order, first order, a first order followed by a second order and two successive first order, depending on the temperature and the ratio of the nn to nnn exchange interactions. Landau's theory of second order phase transition in conjunction with a detailed examination of the behavior of the free energy is employed to map the regions of the different types of transition.     

Square lattice Ising antiferromagnet in an external magnetic field

We study the anisotropic square lattice Ising antiferromagnet in terms of three parameters: an external magnetic field B, an effective temperature and an anisotropy parameterK. The model, i.e., partition function and free energy, is solved exactly in the anisotropic limit,K0, for arbitrary temperature and field by using the transfer matrix method. We also calculate the first corrections beyond this limit. The limit is non trivial and the phase transition is completely preserved. It is of the expected Ising type. The transition temperature _c (B, K) is determined exactly for bothK0 andK and the results are used to check the validity of a recently conjectured formula by Müller-Hartmann and the author.     

Monte Carlo simulation of a random-field Ising antiferromagnet

Phase transitions in the three-dimensional diluted Ising antiferromagnet in an applied magnetic field are analyzed numerically. It is found that random magnetic field in a system with spin concentration below a certain threshold induces a crossover from second-order phase transition to first-order transition to a new phase characterized by a spin-glass ground state and metastable energy states at finite temperatures.     

Low-temperature metastable states in a stacked triangular Ising antiferromagnet

We study low-temperature magnetization processes in a stacked triangular Ising antiferromagnet by Monte Carlo simulations. In increasing and decreasing magnetic fields we observe multiple steps and hysteresis corresponding to formation of different metastable states. Besides the equidistant threefold splitting of the 1/3 ferrimagnetic plateau, we additionally confirm a fourth plateau in the field-increasing branch and a sizable remanence when the field is decreased to zero. The newly observed plateau only appears at sufficiently low temperature and sufficiently large exchange interaction in the stacking direction. These observations reasonably reproduce low-temperatures measurements on the spin-chain compound Ca₃Co₂O₆.     

Thermodynamic and critical properties of an antiferromagnetically stacked triangular Ising antiferromagnet in a field

We study a stacked triangular lattice Ising model with both intra- and inter-plane antiferromagnetic interactions in a field, by Monte Carlo simulation. We find only one phase transition from a paramagnetic to a partially disordered phase, which is of second order and 3D XY universality class. At low temperatures we identify two highly degenerate phases: at smaller (larger) fields the system shows long-range ordering in the stacking direction (within planes) but not in the planes (stacking direction). Nevertheless, crossovers to these phases do not have a character of conventional phase transitions but rather linear-chain-like excitations.     

On the magnetic structure of a hexagonal Ising antiferromagnet

Domain wall free energies are calculated in a hexagonal Ising antiferromagnet and shown to be very small compared with those in an ordinary two-sublattice antiferromagnet. It is suggested that the magnetic structure of its higher temperature ordered phase is one in which many domains are tangled with each other. Some comments are given on experimental results in CsCoCl₃ and CsCoBr₃.     

Phase diagram of a diluted triangular lattice Ising antiferromagnet in a field

Magnetization processes and phase transitions in a geometrically frustrated triangular lattice Ising antiferromagnet in the presence of an external magnetic field and a random site dilution are studied by the use of an effective-field theory with correlations. We find that the interplay between the applied field and the frustration-relieving dilution results in peculiar phase diagrams in the temperature-field-dilution parameter space.     

Coherent motion of a hole in a two-dimensional quantum antiferromagnet

The dispersion relation for the coherent propagation of a hole moving in a two-dimensional quantum antiferromagnet is discussed. The system is described by two model Hamiltonians, thet-J model and thet-t-J model, which have been used frequently to discuss strong electron-correlation effects present in high-T _c superconductors. The calculations are based on the introduction of a new wave function which is constructed by use of equations derived by Shraiman and Siggia. The different mechanisms for the coherent propagation, which are due to the spin fluctuation and the hopping terms of the Hamiltonian, are treated on the same footing. As a result of the inclusion of an effective hopping mechanism along spiral paths-first discussed by Trugman-the minimum of the band is somewhat changed compared to results recently obtained in the literature. For large values of the ratiot/J an inversion of the whole dispersion relation occurs. The overall shapes of the dispersion within both models are found to agree quite well, though for small values oft/J the bandwidth within thet-J model becomes significantly smaller than that of thet-t-J model.     

Residual entropy of spin-s triangular Ising antiferromagnet

We employ a thermodynamic integration method (TIM) to establish the values of the residual entropy for the geometrically frustrated spin-s triangular Ising antiferromagnet, with the spin values s = 1/2, 1, 3/2, 2 and 5/2. The case of s = 1/2, for which the exact value is known, is used to assess the TIM performance. We also obtain an analytical formula for the lower bound in a general spin-s model and conjecture that it should reasonably approximate the true residual entropy for sufficiently large s. Implications of the present results in relation to reliability of the TIM as an indirect method for calculating global thermodynamic quantities, such as the free energy and the entropy, in similar systems involving frustration and/or higher spin values by standard Monte Carlo sampling are briefly discussed.     

Specific features of spin ordering in an Ising antiferromagnet with single-ion easy-plane anisotropy

A thermodynamic analysis of spin ordering in an Ising antiferromagnet with single-ion easy-plane anisotropy is carried out. The solutions of the equations of state are analyzed, and the phase diagram is constructed. It is shown that an increase in the single-ion anisotropy constant as a result of increasing competition between single-ion anisotropy and exchange interaction brings about a crossover from the continuous phase transition to the abrupt phase transition. This is initiated by a change in the ion state populations due to single-ion anisotropy and by the freezing of ionic states with a nonzero spin projection. An increase in the single-ion anisotropy also leads to a crossover of the phase transformation between the paramagnetic and antiferromagnetic states from the order-disorder to order-order type.