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Physical Review B

Quantum phase transitions in low-dimensional quantum spin systems with incommensurate magnetic structures

Andrei A. Zvyagin

Published Aug 10, 2005• 19 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Several exactly solvable quantum spin models with incommensurate magnetic structures, which manifest quantum phase transitions between incommensurate and commensurate phases, are proposed. The ground-state and thermodynamic characteristics of these quantum spin antiferromagnetic models with the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya antisymmetric exchange interaction and spin-frustrating next-nearest-neighbor, three-spin, and four-spin (ring exchange) interactions are exactly studied. We investigated the ground state phases of the considered models, as function of the magnetic anisotropy, Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction, next-nearest-neighbor coupling constants, and external magnetic field. Several quantum phase transitions between magnetically incommensurate phases and between incommensurate and ferromagnetic phases are predicted, and the behavior of thermodynamic characteristics of those models at phase transitions is studied. We have shown that for models with chiral three-spin interactions the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya coupling yields the onset of the weak ferromagnetism, similar to three-dimensional ordered antiferromagnets, but not present in other quantum spin chains with the antisymmetric exchange. Considered models appeared to be important for several quasi-one-dimensional spin systems, studied in recent experiments.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.72.064419

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Several exactly solvable quantum spin models with incommensurate magnetic structures, which manifest quantum phase transitions between incommensurate and commensurate phases, are proposed. The ground-state and thermodynamic characteristics of these quantum spin antiferromagnetic models with the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya antisymmetric exchange interaction and spin-frustrating next-nearest-neighbor, three-spin, and four-spin (ring exchange) interactions are exactly studied. We investigated the ground state phases of the considered models, as function of the magnetic anisotropy, Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction, next-nearest-neighbor coupling constants, and external magnetic field. Several quantum phase transitions between magnetically incommensurate phases and between incommensurate and ferromagnetic phases are predicted, and the behavior of thermodynamic characteristics of those models at phase transitions is studied. We have shown that for models with chiral three-spin interactions the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya coupling yields the onset of the weak ferromagnetism, similar to three-dimensional ordered antiferromagnets, but not present in other quantum spin chains with the antisymmetric exchange. Considered models appeared to be important for several quasi-one-dimensional spin systems, studied in recent experiments.
We study quantum spin models with nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor exchange interactions by means of exact solutions. Depending on the representation, the models can also be viewed as spin ladders with interchain couplings and with ring biquadratic spin-spin interactions. The ground-state phase diagram is constructed as a function of the next-nearest-neighbor couplings and an external magnetic field. Several quantum phase transitions in the ground state, including the possibility of a first-order quantum phase transition, governed by the external magnetic field, are predicted. The low-energy conformal behavior of the low-lying excitations is studied in the commensurate and incommensurate phases. Finally, the properties of the models at finite temperature are studied exactly. A finite set of nonlinear integral equations determining the thermodynamic potential at arbitrary temperature and external magnetic field is derived and solved in several important cases. The results for the magnetic susceptibility and the Sommerfeld coefficient of the specific heat are presented.
We propose an exactly solvable quantum spin model, in which the alternation of the exchange interactions between neighboring spins is accompanied by the multiple spin exchange. The model permits us to obtain exactly thermodynamic characteristics of the considered quantum spin chain. In the ground state, depending on the strength of the three-spin coupling, the model manifests either the spin-gapped behavior of low-lying excitations at low magnetic fields, or the ferrimagnetic ordering with the spontaneous magnetization and with gapless low-lying excitations. The system undergoes second order or first order quantum phase transitions, governed by an external magnetic field and the multiple spin exchange coupling strength. Our exactly solvable quantum spin model demonstrates that multispin interactions in a dimerized quantum spin chain can produce a spontaneous magnetization. On the other hand, for quantum spin chains with a spontaneous magnetization, caused by multispin couplings, the alternation of nearest neighbor exchange interactions can be the reason for destroying of that magnetization and the onset of a spin gap for low-lying excitations.
A one-dimensional spin-1∕2 model in which the alternation of the exchange interactions between neighboring spins is accompanied by the next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) spin exchange (zig-zag spin ladder with alternation) is studied. The thermodynamic characteristics of the model quantum spin chain are obtained in the mean-field-like approximation. Depending on the strength of the NNN interactions, the model manifests either the spin-gapped behavior of low-lying excitations at low magnetic fields, or ferrimagnetic ordering in the ground state with gapless low-lying excitations. The system undergoes second-order or first-order quantum phase transitions, governed by the external magnetic field, NNN coupling strength, and the degree of the alternation. Hence, NNN spin–spin interactions in a dimerized quantum spin chain can produce a spontaneous magnetization. On the other hand, for quantum spin chains with a spontaneous magnetization, caused by NNN spin–spin couplings, the alternation of nearest-neighbor (NN) exchange interactions can cause destruction of that magnetization and the onset of a spin gap for low-lying excitations. Alternating NN interactions produce a spin gap between two branches of low-energy excitations, and the NNN interactions yield asymmetry of the dispersion laws of those excitations, with possible minima corresponding to incommensurate structures in the spin chain.
In this work the ordering processes in classical frustrated Ising models and the ground-state behavior of frustrated quantum spin models are investigated. In the first part the phase transition from a high-temperature paramagnetic phase to a antiferromagnetic ground state is analyzed for the square-lattice Ising model with competing antiferromagnetic interactions between nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor spins. In the case of spatially isotropic interactions the phase transition to a collinear state is of special interest. Using Monte-Carlo simulations on finite lattices as well as field-theoretical methods for the continuous model it is shown that depending on the frustration three different sectors can be distinguished that show (i) Ising-universal behavior (ii) Ashkin-Teller-like non-universal behavior (varying critical exponents) and (iii) non-critical first-order behavior. For spatially anisotropic interactions the emergence of an intermediate incommensurate phase is verified by means of Monte-Carlo simulations which has been predicted by earlier mean-field calculations. The nature of this phase is studied analyzing spin-spin correlation functions and its ordering wave-vector reveals a strong temperature and size dependence. In the second part the influence of quantum fluctuations on classical antiferromagnetic ground states are investigated in anisotropic quantum spin-1/2 Heisenberg models with competing interactions. Using quantum Monte-Carlo simulations, exact diagonalization and perturbation theory the ground-state phase diagrams are calculated for a square lattice with nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor interactions and a honeycomb lattice with up to third-nearest-neighbor interactions whereby the fluctuations are chosen to be non-frustrating. For both cases the stability regions of classical magnetic states are identified and an intermediate phase is detected that shows no sign of long-range magnetic order. Further calculations also rule out valence-bond-crystal or topological order for this state, thus a quantum disordered ground state is stabilized in these models.
The behavior in an external magnetic field is studied exactly for a wide class of multichain quantum spin models. It is shown that the magnetic field together with the interchain couplings cause commensurate–incommensurate phase transitions between the gapless phases in the ground state. The conformal limit of these models is studied and it is shown that the low-lying excitations for the incommensurate phases are not independent, because they are governed by the same magnetic field (chemical potential for excitations). A scenario for the transition from one to two space dimensions for the exactly integrable multichain quantum spin models is proposed, and it is shown that the incommensurate phases in an external magnetic field disappear in the limit of an infinite number of coupled spin chains. The similarities in the external field behavior for the quantum multichain spin models and a wide class of quantum field theories are discussed. The scaling exponents for the appearance of the gap in the spectrum of low-lying excitations of the quantum multichain models due to the relevant perturbations of the integrable theories are calculated.
Phase transitions in the quantum frustrated antiferromagnetic two-chain system with additional three-spin interactions of special form are studied. With the help of an exact Bethe ansatz solution it is shown that such a zigzag-like system has two critical-magnetic-field values in the ground state: One of these is the usual phase transition into a ferromagnetic state, while the second one is connected with magnetic structure doubling. Two phase transitions are revealed in the ``factorization'' of the dispersion law of an elementary excitation. The absence of a gap behavior in recent experiments is explained. Two types of chiral spin ordering for frustrated low-dimensional magnets are proposed.