The quantum phases in a spin-1 skewed ladder system formed by alternately fusing five- and seven-membered rings are studied numerically using the exact diagonalization technique up to 16 spins and using the density matrix renormalization group method for larger system sizes. The ladder has a fixed isotropic antiferromagnetic (AF) exchange interaction (
J2=1) between the nearest-neighbor spins along the legs and a varying isotropic AF exchange interaction (
J1) along the rungs. As a function of
J1, the system shows many interesting ground states (gs) which vary from different types of nonmagnetic and ferrimagnetic gs. The study of various gs properties such as spin gap, spin-spin correlations, spin density, and bond order reveal that the system has four distinct phases, namely, the AF phase at small
J1; the ferrimagnetic phase with gs spin
SG=n for
1.44<J1<4.74 and with
SG=2n for
J1>5.63, where
n is the number of unit cells; and a reentrant nonmagnetic phase at
4.74<J1<5.44. The system also shows the presence of spin current at specific
J1 values due to simultaneous breaking of both reflection and spin parity symmetries.
The quantum phases of two-leg spin-
21 ladders with skewed rungs are obtained using exact diagonalization of systems with up to 26 spins and by density-matrix renormalization-group calculations to 500 spins. The ladders have isotropic antiferromagnetic (AF) exchange
J2>0 between first neighbors in the legs, variable isotropic AF exchange
J1 between some first neighbors in different legs, and an unpaired spin per odd-membered ring when ${J}_{1}\ensuremath{\gg}{J}_{2}$. Ladders with skewed rungs and variable
J1 have frustrated AF interactions leading to multiple quantum phases: AF at small
J1, either ferromagnetic or AF at large
J1, as well as bond-order-wave phases or reentrant AF (singlet) phases at intermediate
J1.
The frustrated ladder with alternate ferromagnetic(F) exchange
−JF and AF exchange
JA to first neighbors and F exchange
−JL to second neighbors is studied by exact diagonalization (ED) and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations in systems of
2N spins-1/2 with periodic boundary conditions. The ground state is a singlet
(S=0) and the singlet-triplet gap
εT is finite for the exchanges considered. Spin-1/2 string correlation functions
g1(N) and
g2(N) are defined for an even number
N of consecutive spins in systems with two spins per unit cell; the ladder has string order
g2(∞)>0 and
g1(∞)=0. The minimum
N∗ of
g2(N) is related to the range of ground-state spin correlations. Convergence to
g2(∞) is from below, and
g1(N) decreases exponentially for
N≥N∗. Singlet valence bond (VB) diagrams account for the size dependencies. The frustrated ladder at special values of
JF,
JL and
JA reduces to well-known models such as the spin-1 Heisenberg antiferromagnet and the
J1−J2 model, among others. Numerical analysis of ladders matches previous results for spin-1 gaps or string correlation functions and extends them to spin-1/2 systems. The nondegenerate singlet ground state of ladder is a bond-order wave, a Kekulé VB diagrams at
JL=JF/2≤JA, that is reversed on interchanging
−JF and
JA. Inversion symmetry is spontaneously broken in the dimer phase of the
J1−J2 model where the Kekulé diagrams are the doubly degenerate ground states at
J2/J1=1/2.
In this brief review, we introduce a new spin ladder system called skewed spin ladders and discuss the exotic quantum phases of this system. The spin ladders studied are the 5/7, 3/4 and 3/5 systems corresponding to alternately fused 5 and 7 membered rings; 3 and 4 membered rings; and 3 and 5 membered rings. These ladders show completely different behaviour as the Hamiltonian model parameter is changed. When the Hamiltonian parameter is increased the 5/7 ladder switches from an initial singlet ground state to progressively higher spin ground state and then to a reentrant singlet state before finally settling to the highest spin ground state whose spin equals the number of unit cells in the system. The 3/4 ladder goes from a singlet ground state to a high spin ground state with each unit cell contributing spin 1 to the state, as the model parameter is increased. The 3/5 ladder shows a singlet ground state for small parameters and high spin ground state for intermediate values of the parameter and for still higher parameters, a reentrant singlet ground state. They can also show interesting magnetization plateaus as illustrated by studies on a specific spin ladder.
Abstract We study a frustrated two-leg spin ladder with alternate isotropic Heisenberg and Ising rung exchange interactions, whereas, interactions along legs and diagonals are Ising-type. All the interactions in the ladder are anti-ferromagnetic in nature and induce frustration in the system. This model shows four interesting quantum phases: (i) stripe rung ferromagnetic (SRFM), (ii) stripe rung ferromagnetic with edge singlet (SRFM-E), (iii) anisotropic antiferromagnetic (AAFM), and (iv) stripe leg ferromagnetic (SLFM) phase. We construct a quantum phase diagram for this model and show that in stripe rung ferromagnet (SRFM), the same type of sublattice spins (either isotropic S -type or discrete anisotropic σ -type spins) are aligned in the same direction. Whereas, in anisotropic antiferromagnetic phase, both S and σ -type of spins are anti-ferromagnetically aligned with each other, two nearest S spins along the rung form an anisotropic singlet bond whereas two nearest σ spins form an Ising bond. In large Heisenberg rung exchange interaction limit, spins on each leg are ferromagnetically aligned, but spins on different legs are anti-ferromagnetically aligned. The thermodynamic quantities like specific heat C v ( T ), magnetic susceptibility χ ( T ) and thermal entropy S ( T ) are also calculated using the transfer matrix method for various phases. The magnetic gap in the SRFM and the SLFM can be noticed from χ ( T ) and C v ( T ) curves.
The magnetization
M(h) is used to identify three singlet quantum phases of the ladder with isotropic exchange interactions. The Dimer phase with frustrated F exchanges in rungs and legs has a first-order
M(h) transition at
0 K from singlet to ferromagnetic at the saturation field
hs. The Haldane-DAF phase with strong F exchange in rungs and net AF exchange between rungs has continuous
M(h) and is adiabatically connected to the
S=1 Heisenberg AF chain. The AF phase with strong F exchange in legs and net AF exchange between legs has continuous
M(h) and is adiabatically connected to the spin-1/2
J1−J2 model with
J1>0 and
J2<0. All three singlet phases have finite gaps to the lowest triplet state.