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arXiv:1412.0266 · Physical Review B

Magnetocaloric effects, quantum critical points, and the Berezinsky-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in two-dimensional coupled spin-dimer systems

Dominik Straßel, Peter Kopietz, Sebastian Eggert

Published Apr 6, 2015• 13 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Spin-dimer systems are a versatile playground for the detailed study of quantum phase transitions. Using the magnetic field as the tuning parameter, it is possible to observe a crossover from the characteristic scaling near critical points to the behavior of a finite-temperature phase transition. In this work we study two-dimensional coupled spin-dimer systems by comparing numerical quantum Monte Carlo simulations with analytical calculations of the susceptibility, the magnetocaloric effect, and the helicity modulus. The magnetocaloric behavior of the magnetization with temperature can be used to determine the critical fields with high accuracy, but the critical scaling does not show the expected logarithmic corrections. The zeros of the cooling rate are an excellent indicator of the competition between quantum criticality and vortex physics, but they are not directly associated with the quantum phase transition or the finite-temperature Berezinsky-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. The results give a unified picture of the full quantum and finite-temperature phase diagram.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.91.134406

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Spin-dimer systems are a versatile playground for the detailed study of quantum phase transitions. Using the magnetic field as the tuning parameter, it is possible to observe a crossover from the characteristic scaling near critical points to the behavior of a finite-temperature phase transition. In this work we study two-dimensional coupled spin-dimer systems by comparing numerical quantum Monte Carlo simulations with analytical calculations of the susceptibility, the magnetocaloric effect, and the helicity modulus. The magnetocaloric behavior of the magnetization with temperature can be used to determine the critical fields with high accuracy, but the critical scaling does not show the expected logarithmic corrections. The zeros of the cooling rate are an excellent indicator of the competition between quantum criticality and vortex physics, but they are not directly associated with the quantum phase transition or the finite-temperature Berezinsky-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. The results give a unified picture of the full quantum and finite-temperature phase diagram.
We study the critical properties in cubic systems of antiferromagnetically coupled spin dimers near magnetic-field-induced quantum phase transitions. The quantum critical points in the zero-temperature phase diagram are determined from quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Furthermore, scaling properties of the uniform magnetization and the staggered transverse magnetization across the quantum phase transition in magnetic fields are calculated. Excellent agreement is observed between the quantum Monte Carlo simulations and previous analytical and experimental results near the magnetic field-induced transition. At the zero-field quantum critical point, logarithmic corrections to mean-field behavior are observed, which match well recent experiments for the pressure-induced quantum phase transition.
The magnetic Grüneisen ratio, defined as Γ g ≡ (1/ T )(∂ T /∂ g ) S , characterizes the magnetocaloric effect (MCE) driven by an external field g and serves as a highly sensitive probe for field-induced quantum critical points (QCPs). Near a QCP, Γ g displays diverging behaviors described by a universal scaling function depending on the universality class. Here, we systematically investigate the universal scaling functions of Grüneisen ratio Γ g in typical one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) quantum spin systems, including the transverse-field Ising model, XY model, q -state quantum Potts model ( q = 3, 4), and the J 1 - J 2 columnar dimer model. Our approach employs the linearized tensor renormalization group (LTRG) method for infinite-size 1D systems and the stochastic series expansion quantum Monte Carlo (SSE QMC) simulations for 2D systems, enabling precise calculations of the Γ g near QCPs. We extract universal scaling functions via data collapse analysis. This universal magnetocaloric framework offers a quantitative tool for analyzing measurements in quantum materials and for guiding the search for quantum critical cooling applications.
In the study of strongly interacting condensed-matter systems controlled microscopic theories hold a key position. Spin-wave theory, large-N expansion, and epsilonepsilonepsilon-expansion are some of the few successful cornerstones. In this doctoral thesis work, we have developed a novel large-ddd expansion method, ddd being the spatial dimension, to study model Hamiltonians hosting a quantum phase transition between a paramagnet and a magnetically ordered phase. A highlight of this technique is that it can consistently describe the entire phase diagram of the above mentioned models, including the quantum critical point. Note that most analytical techniques either efficiently describe only one of the phases or suffer from divergences near the critical point. The idea of large-ddd formalism is that in this limit, non-local fluctuations become unimportant and that a suitable product state delivers exact expectation values for local observables, with corrections being suppressed in powers of 1/d1/d1/d. It turns out that, due to momentum summation properties of the interaction structure factor, all diagrams are suppressed in powers of 1/d1/d1/d leading to an analytic expansion. We have demonstrated this method in two important systems namely, the coupled-dimer magnets and the transverse-field Ising model. Coupled-dimer magnets are Heisenberg spin systems with two spins, coupled by intra-dimer antiferromagnetic interaction, per crystallographic unit cell (dimer). In turn, spins from neighboring dimers interact via some inter-dimer interaction. A quantum paramagnet is realized for a dominant intra-dimer interaction, while a magnetically ordered phase exists for a dominant (or of the same order as intra-dimer interaction) inter-dimer interaction. These two phases are connected by a quantum phase transition, which is in the Heisenberg O(3) universality class. Microscopic analytical theories to study such systems have been restricted to either only one of the phases or involve uncontrolled approximations. Using a non-linear bond-operator theory for spins with S=1/21/21/2, we have calculated the 1/d1/d1/d expansion of static and dynamic observables for coupled dimers on a hypercubic lattice at zero temperature. Analyticity of the 1/d1/d1/d expansion, even at the critical point, is ensured by correctly identifying suitable observables using the mean-field critical exponents. This method yields gapless excitation modes in the continuous symmetry broken phase, as required by Goldstone\'s theorem. In appropriate limits, our results match with perturbation expansion in small ratio of inter-dimer and intra-dimer coupling, performed using continuous unitary transformations, as well as the spin-wave theory for spin-1/21/21/2 in arbitrary dimensions. We also discuss the Brueckner approach, which relies on small quasiparticle density, and derive the same 1/d1/d1/d expansion for the dispersion relation in the disordered phase. Another success of our work is in describing the amplitude (Higgs) mode in coupled-dimer magnets. Our novel method establishes the popular bond-operator theory as a controlled approach. In d=2d=2d=2, the results from our calculations are in qualitative agreement with the quantum Monte Carlo study of the square-lattice bilayer Heisenberg AF spin-1/21/21/2 model. In particular, our results are useful to identify the amplitude (Higgs) mode in the QMC data. The ideas of large-ddd are also successfully applied to the transverse-field Ising model on a hypercubic lattice. Similar to bond operators, we have introduced auxiliary Bosonsic operators to set up our method in this case. We have also discussed briefly the bilayer Kitaev model, constructed by antiferromagnetically coupling two layers of the Kitaev model on a honeycomb lattice. In this case, we investigate the dimer quantum paramagnetic phase, realized in the strong inter-layer coupling limit. Using bond-operator theory, we calculate the mode dispersion in this phase, within the harmonic approximation. We also conjecture a zero-temperature phase diagram for this model.
The quantum phase transition, scaling behaviors, and thermodynamics in the spin-1/2 quantum Heisenberg model with antiferromagnetic coupling J>0 in the armchair direction and ferromagnetic interaction J^{'}<0 in the zigzag direction on a honeycomb lattice are systematically studied using the continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method. By calculating the Binder ratio Q_{2} and spin stiffness ρ in two directions for various coupling ratios α=J^{'}/J under different lattice sizes, we found that a quantum phase transition from the dimerized phase to the stripe phase occurs at the quantum critical point α_{c}=-0.93. Through the finite-size scaling analysis on Q_{2}, ρ_{x}, and ρ_{y}, we determined the critical exponent related to the correlation length ν to be 0.7212(8), implying that this transition falls into a classical Heisenberg O(3) universality. A zero magnetization plateau is observed in the dimerized phase, whose width decreases with increasing α. A phase diagram in the coupling ratio α-magnetic field h plane is obtained, where four phases, including dimerized, stripe, canted stripe, and polarized, are identified. It is also unveiled that the temperature dependence of the specific heat C(T) for different α's intersects precisely at one point, similar to that of liquid ^{3}He under different pressures and several magnetic compounds under various magnetic fields. The scaling behaviors of Q_{2}, ρ, and C(T) are carefully analyzed. The susceptibility is compared with the experimental data to give the magnetic parameters of both compounds.
Quantum fluctuations can give rise to a singular quantum critical point (QCP) in the ground state, whose influence extends to finite temperatures, forming a quantum critical regime (QCR). Recently, it has been shown that in the quantum Ising model, the symmetry-breaking, longitudinal field can induce a quantum supercritical regime (QSR) emanating from the QCP, which hosts a universally enhanced quantum supercritical magnetocaloric effect (MCE). In this paper, we show that the QSR also emerges in the spin-1/2 XXZ model, in both the form of Ising and Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) supercriticality. Using ground-state and finite-temperature tensor-network methods, we investigate quantum supercritical phenomena near a BKT QCP. We reveal a quantum supercritical crossover scaling T∝h2/3T \propto h^{2/3}T∝h2/3 and a Grüneisen ratio scaling Γh∝T−3/2Γ_h \propto T^{-3/2}Γh​∝T−3/2 for the BKT QCP, which differ from the corresponding Ising supercritical scalings. Nevertheless, we find that the scaling function ϕΓ(x)ϕ_Γ(x)ϕΓ​(x) of the singular Grüneisen ratio for both BKT and Ising cases can be approximately described by the same expression ϕΓ(x)≈x/(1+x2)ϕ_Γ(x) \approx x/(1+x^2)ϕΓ​(x)≈x/(1+x2). Our work extends the study of quantum supercritical phenomena from the Ising to the XXZ Heisenberg model, thereby revealing the presence of BKT quantum supercriticality and broadening the scope of quantum supercritical physics.
The frustrated antiferromagnetic XY model on the triangular lattice is a simple model describing the critical phenomena of magnetic systems. By using the Monte Carlo simulation method associated with the Metropolis algorithm, we investigate phase transitions of the system at critical temperatures and near critical temperatures. To achieve a scaling form of important parameters, the finite size effect must be taken into account. Our results show clearly that the broken symmetries of the system occur at two separate critical temperatures, the Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature and the Ising-like temperature (TI). However these temperatures lie close to each other about 0.6% compared with the lower temperature. At TI, the reflection symmetry breaking transition occurs and it is known as the Ising-like transition. While at the lower temperature, the rotational symmetry breaking transition occurs and it is known as the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Moreover, we found the asymptotic behavior of the correlation length of the Ising-like transition with the critical exponent, ν = 0.74. Taken into account the finite size effect, this value approaches 0.83 which differs from the value, ν = 1, for the Ising universality class. It is likely that the Ising-like transition may not belong to the Ising universality class. Also the other parameters such as the energy of the system, the order parameters, the specific heat, the magnetic susceptibility and the correlation functions have been calculated and their properties near the critical temperatures and at the critical temperatures have been studied.