In spin‐gapped quasi‐one‐dimensional antiferromagnets that do not show phase transitions down to zero temperature, impurities cause phase transitions by inducing local magnetic moments around them between which long‐range correlation is mediated by weak interchain couplings. We investigate the difference between the effects of non‐magnetic impurities and those of spin‐1/2 magnetic ones in the impurity‐induced transition temperatures and the staggered magnetization in the impurity‐induced ordered phase by the quantum Monte Carlo method. We find that the staggered correlation induced by spin‐1/2 impurities grows slower than that done by non‐magnetic ones as the system is cooled and approaches the ground state, while the transition temperature induced by the former is higher than that done by the latter. We argue that this is one of the characteristic aspects of the order‐by‐disorder phenomena in quantum systems.
In spin‐gapped quasi‐one‐dimensional antiferromagnets that do not show phase transitions down to zero temperature, impurities cause phase transitions by inducing local magnetic moments around them between which long‐range correlation is mediated by weak interchain couplings. We investigate the difference between the effects of non‐magnetic impurities and those of spin‐1/2 magnetic ones in the impurity‐induced transition temperatures and the staggered magnetization in the impurity‐induced ordered phase by the quantum Monte Carlo method. We find that the staggered correlation induced by spin‐1/2 impurities grows slower than that done by non‐magnetic ones as the system is cooled and approaches the ground state, while the transition temperature induced by the former is higher than that done by the latter. We argue that this is one of the characteristic aspects of the order‐by‐disorder phenomena in quantum systems.
We discuss the effects of nonmagnetic impurities (static holes) in the S=1/2 Heisenberg model on a two-dimensional (2D) square lattice, and on two- and three-leg ladders. Results of quantum Monte Carlo simulations show that a free localized moment is induced around an isolated impurity only in the spin-gapped two-leg ladder, in agreement with previous theoretical expectations. The localization length of the S=1/2 impurity moment in a two-leg ladder with isotropic couplings is $\ensuremath{\approx}1.5$ lattice spacings. In gapless ladders (odd number of legs) and in the 2D lattice, no free moments are induced. However, in the 2D system, which has antiferromagnetic long-range order at T=0 and a gap for longitudinal fluctuations, the impurity leads to a localized distortion of the magnetization in the direction of the broken symmetry, with total Sz=1/2. The shape of the distortion is in close agreement with previous spin-wave calculations. For all the systems, a staggered moment is induced by the impurity. For the gapped two-leg ladder this is exponentially localized within a length equal to the spin correlation length of the ladder ($\ensuremath{\approx}3.2$ lattice spacings). For the three-leg ladder, the integrated staggered moment diverges as the system size goes to infinity, but the staggered magnetization at a given site appears to vanish. In 2D, we discuss the behavior seen in finite systems both with and without additional symmetry-breaking mechanisms. We also discuss the effect of impurities on the NMR Knight shift and the bulk magnetic susceptibility.
We study the interplay of doping and an external magnetic field H on dimerized antiferromagnetic S = 1/2 systems with a finite spin gap Δ. We show that for sufficiently small three-dimensional coupling J′ the long-range antiferromagnetic order known to result from doping with nonmagnetic impurities is destroyed by a weak magnetic field H>Hc1. The lower critical field Hc1 is proportional to the impurity concentration, above Hc1 the system remains in the disordered (plateau) phase up to the much higher upper critical field Hc2 ≃Δ. We discuss the phase diagram in the (H,J') and (H,T) planes and suggest that the reentrant behavior can be experimentally observed in KCuCl3. It is argued that similar phenomena can arise in other weakly coupled quasi-one-dimensional gapped systems.
The ground-state properties of the quasi-one-dimensional spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model is investigated by using a variational method. Spins on chains along the x direction are antiferromagnetically coupled with exchange J>0, while spins between chains in the y direction are coupled either ferromagnetically (${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}<0$) or antiferromagnetically (${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}>0$). The staggered and the colinear antiferromagnetic magnetizations are computed and their dependence on the anisotropy parameter $\ensuremath{\lambda}=|{J}^{\ensuremath{'}}|/J$ is analyzed. It is found that an infinitesimal interchain coupling parameter is sufficient to stabilize a long-range order with either a staggered magnetization ms (${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}>0$) or a colinear antiferromagnetic magnetization mcaf (${J}^{\ensuremath{'}}<0$), both behaving as $\ensuremath{\simeq}{\ensuremath{\lambda}}^{1/2}$ for $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$.
Bond-dilution effects on the ground state of the square-lattice antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model, consisting of coupled bond-alternating chains, are investigated by means of the quantum Monte Carlo simulation. It is found that, when the ground state of the non-diluted system is a non-magnetic state with a finite spin gap, a sufficiently weak bond dilution induces a disordered state with a mid gap in the original spin gap, and under a further stronger bond dilution an antiferromagnetic long-range order emerges. While the site-dilution-induced long-range order is induced by an infinitesimal concentration of dilution, there exists a finite critical concentration in the case of bond dilution. We argue that this essential difference is due to the occurrence of two types of effective interactions between induced magnetic moments in the case of bond dilution, and that the antiferromagnetic long-range-ordered phase does not appear until the magnitudes of the two interactions become comparable.
We present a systematic study of the anisotropic spin-1/2 Heisenberg model in staggered magnetic fields in two dimensions. To mimic real materials, we consider a system of coupled, antiferromagnetic chains, whose interchain interaction can be either ferro- or antiferromagnetic. When the staggered field is commensurate with the magnetic interactions, an energy gap opens immediately and follows a power law as a function of the applied field, similar to the situation in one dimension. When the field competes with the interactions, a quantum phase transition (QPT) occurs from a gapless, magnetically ordered phase at low fields to a gapped, disordered regime. We use a continuous-time Monte Carlo method to compute the staggered moment of the ordered phases and the spin gap of the disordered phases. We deduce the phase diagrams as functions of the anisotropy ratio and the applied field, and calculate the scaling behavior of the models in both quantities. We show that in the competitive case, the staggered field acts to maintain a regime of quasi-1D behavior around the QPT, and we discuss as a consequence the nature of the crossover from one-dimensional (1D) to 2D physics.
We study the temperature dependence of low-temperature spin configurations, investigating the magnetization profile of the local states due to the impurities and the two point correlation function centered on one of the impurities. This correlation is found to be weak against increases in temperature, although the magnetization profile in the triplet state is visible up to higher temperatures. Here we introduce a loop cluster quantum Monte Carlo method with a fixed magnetization Mz in order to study the correlations in the ground state with a given value of Mz. From the population distribution of magnetization, a very small energy gap between the quasidegenerate states due to the impurities is obtained.