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Near-Surface Long-Range Order at the Ordinary Transition: Scaling Analysis and Monte Carlo Results

Peter Czerner, Uwe Ritschel

Published Jan 1, 1996• 9 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Motivated by recent experimental activities on surface critical phenomena, we present a detailed theoretical study of the near-surface behavior of the local order parameter m(z) in Ising-like spin systems. Special attention is paid to the crossover regime between “ordinary” and “normal” transition in the three-dimensional semi-infinite Ising model, where a finite magnetic field H1 is imposed on the surface which itself exhibits a reduced tendency to order spontaneously. As the theoretical foundation, the spatial behavior of m(z) is discussed by means of phenomenological scaling arguments, and a finite-size scaling analysis is performed. Then we present Monte Carlo results for m(z) obtained with the Swendsen-Wang algorithm. In particular the sharp power-law increase of the magnetization, m(z) ≈ H1z1−η∼ord, predicted for a smallH1 by previous work of the authors, is corroborated by the numerical results. The relevance of these findings for experiments on critical adsorption in systems where a small effective surface field occurs is pointed out.

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Magnetic-Phase Transitions of Ising Surfaces with Modified Surface-Bulk Coupling: a Monte Carlo Study

Michele Vendruscolo, Mauro Rovere, Annalisa Fasolino

We present the Monte Carlo phase diagram of Ising surfaces with intrasurface ( J s ) and surface-bulk ( J 1 ) interactions modified with respect to the bulk exchange interaction J . The new parameter J 1 strongly affects the position of the Binder-Landau multi critical point and the crossover from three-dimensional to two-dimensional behaviour. The surface critical exponents β 1 and ϕ are determined by crossover scaling analysis. A detailed comparison with the results of the mean-field equations is also presented. The Monte Carlo phase diagram shows that stronger modifications of the surface couplings, with respect to those obtained by mean field, are needed to produce an ordered surface phase on a paramagnetic bulk. This is particularly relevant at low values of J s ; in the Monte Carlo simulation the surface is disordered for all values of J 1 when J s < (0.4 ÷ 0.5) J , while the mean field predicts that the ordered phase is present even in the limit J s → 0.

Europhysics Letters (EPL)•Nov 15, 1992•14 citations
Motivated by recent experimental activities on surface critical phenomena, we present a detailed theoretical study of the near-surface behavior of the local order parameter m(z) in Ising-like spin systems. Special attention is paid to the crossover regime between “ordinary” and “normal” transition in the three-dimensional semi-infinite Ising model, where a finite magnetic field H1 is imposed on the surface which itself exhibits a reduced tendency to order spontaneously. As the theoretical foundation, the spatial behavior of m(z) is discussed by means of phenomenological scaling arguments, and a finite-size scaling analysis is performed. Then we present Monte Carlo results for m(z) obtained with the Swendsen-Wang algorithm. In particular the sharp power-law increase of the magnetization, m(z) ≈ H1z1−η∼ord, predicted for a smallH1 by previous work of the authors, is corroborated by the numerical results. The relevance of these findings for experiments on critical adsorption in systems where a small effective surface field occurs is pointed out.
We theoretically investigate the spatial dependence of the order parameter of the two-dimensional semi-infinite Ising model with a free surface at or above the bulk critical temperature. Special attention is paid to the influence of a surface magnetic field h1 and the crossover between the fixed points at h1 = 0 and h1 = ∞. The sharp increase of the magnetization m(z) close to the boundary generated by a small h1, which was found by the present authors in the three-dimensional model, is also seen in two dimensions. There, however, the universal short-distance power law is modified by a logarithm, m(z) ∼ z κ ln z, where κ, the difference between the scaling dimensions of h1 and the bulk magnetization, has the exact value 3/8. By means of a phenomenological scaling analysis, the short-distance behavior can be related to the logarithmic dependence of the surface magnetization m1 on h1. Our results, which are corroborated by Monte Carlo simulations, provide a deeper understanding of the existing exact results concerning the local magnetization and relate the short-distance phenomena in two dimensions to those in higher dimensionality.
We study the surface critical behavior of semi-infinite systems belonging to the bulk universality class of the Ising model. Special attention is paid to the local behavior of experimentally relevant quantities such as the order parameter and the correlation function in the crossover regimes between different surface universality classes, where the surface field h1 and the temperature enhancement c can induce additional macroscopic length scales. Starting from the field-theoretical φ4 model and employing renormalization-group improved perturbation theory (ϵ-expansion), explicit results for the local behavior of the correlation and structure function (zero-loop) and the order parameter (one-loop) are derived. Supplementing earlier studies that focused on the special transition, we here pay particular attention to the situation where a large c suppresses the tendency to order in the surface (ordinary transition) but a surface field h1 generates a small surface magnetization m1. Our results are in good agreement with recent phenomenological considerations and Monte Carlo studies devoted to similar questions and, combined with the latter, provide a much more detailed understanding of the local properties of systems with weak surface fields.
We study the two-dimensional semi-infinite Ising model with a free surface at or near bulk criticality. Special attention is paid to the influence of a boundary magnetic field h1 on the surface-near regime and the crossover between the fixed points at h1=0 and h1=∞. Near the surface, a smallh1 causes a steeply increasing magnetization m(z)~z3/8 log z as the distance z increases away from the surface. By means of a phenomenological scaling analysis, this phenomenon can be related to the well-known logarithmic dependence of the surface magnetization m1 on h1. Our analysis provides a deeper understanding of the existing exact results on m(z) and relates the short-distance phenomena in d=2 to those in higher dimensions. Both the results of the scaling analysis and the exact analytic profiles are corroborated by Monte Carlo simulations.
We study the special point in the phase diagram of a semi-infinite system where the bulk transition is in the three-dimensional Ising universality class. To this end we performed a finite-size-scaling study of the improved Blume-Capel model on the simple cubic lattice with two different types of surface interaction. In order to check for the effect of leading bulk corrections we also simulated the spin-1/2 Ising model on the simple cubic lattice. We accurately estimated the surface enhancement coupling at the special point of these models. We find yt1=0.718(2){y}_{{t}_{1}}=0.718(2)yt1​​=0.718(2) and yh1=1.6465(6){y}_{{h}_{1}}=1.6465(6)yh1​​=1.6465(6) for the surface renormalization group exponents of the special transition. These results are compared with previous ones obtained by using field-theoretic methods and Monte Carlo simulations of the spin-1/2 Ising model. Furthermore, we study the behavior of the surface transition near the special point, and finally we discuss films with special boundary conditions at one surface and fixed ones at the other.
The surface scaling theory previously presented by the authors is developed further, and derived heuristically from a cluster model. Monte Carlo calculations are carried out to obtain the spatial and temperature dependence of the magnetization in Ising and Heisenberg systems with free surfaces. The exponent ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{1}$ of the (surface) layer magnetization is shown to agree with the scaling value (${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{1}\ensuremath{\approx}\frac{2}{3}$) previously derived. In the Heisenberg system, the results at low temperature agree with a spin-wave calculation by Mills and Maradudin. Ising models with modified exchange ${J}_{s}=J(1+\ensuremath{\Delta})\ensuremath{\ne}J$ on the surface are considered, both in mean-field theory and by means of high-temperature-series expansions. The critical value ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{c}$ for surface ordering is found from the series to be 0.6, compared to the mean-field value of 0.25. For $\ensuremath{\Delta}>{\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{c}$ there is a temperature region in which the surface behaves like a bulk two-dimensional Ising model near its phase transition. The critical exponents experience a crossover at $\ensuremath{\Delta}={\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{c}$, which is reflected in poorly behaved series, and effective exponents differing from the true ones for $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\lesssim}{\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{c}$. In the case of weakened surface exchange (0<Js<J0<{J}_{s}<J0<Js​<J), the layer magnetization is shown to fit a linear temperature dependence over a large temperature range below Tc{T}_{c}Tc​, thus providing a possible explanation for previous experiments. For sufficiently strong negative Js{J}_{s}Js​, mean-field theory predicts that the surface will order antiferromagnetically while the bulk is ferromagnetic.
We present the Monte Carlo phase diagram of Ising surfaces with intrasurface ( J s ) and surface-bulk ( J 1 ) interactions modified with respect to the bulk exchange interaction J . The new parameter J 1 strongly affects the position of the Binder-Landau multi critical point and the crossover from three-dimensional to two-dimensional behaviour. The surface critical exponents β 1 and ϕ are determined by crossover scaling analysis. A detailed comparison with the results of the mean-field equations is also presented. The Monte Carlo phase diagram shows that stronger modifications of the surface couplings, with respect to those obtained by mean field, are needed to produce an ordered surface phase on a paramagnetic bulk. This is particularly relevant at low values of J s ; in the Monte Carlo simulation the surface is disordered for all values of J 1 when J s < (0.4 ÷ 0.5) J , while the mean field predicts that the ordered phase is present even in the limit J s → 0.