Extraction of antiferromagnetic (AF) exchange constants J and J\ensuremath{'} in two-leg spin-1/2 nearest-neighbor (NN) Heisenberg ladders from experimental magnetic spin susceptibility \ensuremath{\chi}(T) data is studied, where J\ensuremath{'} is the NN exchange constant in the rungs and J is that in the legs. Two low-T (T\ensuremath{\ll}J/
kB) approximations of Troyer, Tsunetsugu, and W\"urtz [Phys. Rev. B 50, 13 515 (1994)] for \ensuremath{\chi}(T) of the isolated spin-1/2 two-leg ladder with J\ensuremath{'}/J=1 are shown to be accurate to \ensuremath{\sim}10% when extrapolated to T\ensuremath{\sim}J\ensuremath{'}/
kB. The variations in the magnetic excitation dispersion relation parameters [which enter the low-T expression of Troyer et al. for \ensuremath{\chi}(T)] for J\ensuremath{'}/J1 are inferred from previous theoretical results. Next, the values of the maxima in \ensuremath{\chi}(T)\ensuremath{\equiv}${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\chi}}}^{\mathrm{max}}$ from many numerical calculations in the literature for various nonfrustrated spin-1/2 NN Heisenberg antiferromagnets are considered. The values of the product ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\chi}}}^{\mathrm{max}}$
zeff are found to depend systematically and almost uniqely on an effective magnetic coordination number
zeff, defined in the text, but are nearly independent of the dimensionality of the spin lattice and of the magnitude of any gap in the magnetic excitation spectrum. This observation allows accurate bounds on the exchange coupling constants in arbitrary quasi-low-dimensional spin-1/2 antiferromagnets to be inferred from experimental ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\chi}}}^{\mathrm{max}}$ values. Finally, a mean-field-type expression for \ensuremath{\chi}(T) for arbitrary quasi-low-dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnets is derived, using the above ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\chi}}}^{\mathrm{max}}$ phenomenology as input, which allows the influence of intersystem coupling on \ensuremath{\chi}(T) to be evaluated. These results, and the \ensuremath{\chi}(T) calculations of Barnes and Riera [Phys. Rev. B 50, 6817 (1994)] for isolated two-leg spin-1/2 Heisenberg ladders, are used to analyze the experimental \ensuremath{\chi}(T) data of Azuma et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 3463 (1994)] for the spin-1/2 two-leg ladder compound
SrCu2O3. The analyses together suggest that J\ensuremath{'}/J\ensuremath{\sim}0.5, contrary to the expectation that J\ensuremath{'}/J\ensuremath{\approxeq}1, and that J is very large (\ensuremath{\sim}2000 K), similar to the value of J in the linear-chain cuprate
Sr2CuO3. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
Various forms of antiferromagnetic exchange interaction among quantized spins in one-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional lattices are examined. Primary results are reported in two real compounds, the sodium vanadate NaV2O5 and the copper germanate CuGeO3, and in a class of compounds of real materials modeled as dimerized antiferromagnetically coupled spin-1/2 chains susceptible to spin-1 impurity doping and that include such examples as the strontium cuprate Sr14Cu24O41 and vanadium pyrophosphate (VO)2P2O7. Sodium vanadate, NaV2O5, a quarter-filled two-leg ladder compound that was originally thought to be composed of magnetic legs and nonmagnetic legs was subsequently shown to be a charge ordered system below room temperature. Initial models of the material as isolated antiferromagnetically coupled spin-1/2 chains can be mapped to the subsequently resolved magnetic system of the charge ordered state with the spins on molecular orbitals of V-O-V rungs antiferromagentically coupled between neighboring rungs either on the same ladder or on neighboring ladders. Comparing the model's dynamic structure factor to inelastic neutron scattering data could distinguish between the proposed spin coupling schemes and consequently reveal the details of the interaction between the lattice and the "zig-zag" charge density as well as the magnetic stabilization of the low temperature phase. Copper germanate, the first and only known inorganic spin-Peierls compound, exhibits a strong temperature dependent exchange coupling pattern among the spin-1/2 Cu2+ chains. Above the spin-Peierls transition temperature an unmodulated antiferromagnetic nearest neighbor exchange interaction J1 competes with an antiferromagnetic next nearest neighbor interaction J2. The next nearest neighbor exchange represents an effective coupling equivalent to the net effect of all longer range exchange interactions. This frustration to the nearest neighbor spin exchange produces a distinctive magnetic susceptibility χ (T) much different from the Bonner-Fisher susceptibility of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain with nearest neighbor antiferromagnetic exchange only. The ratio of the second to first nearest neighbor couplings α = J2/J1 ≈ 0.36 is sufficient to open a spontaneous gap in the spin-wave excitation spectrum at low temperatures. Below TSP = 14K, the dynamical structure factor is used to fit the dimerization δ and the exchange interactions J1 and J2 to the inelastic neutron scattering data of CuGeO3 at T = 10K. It is found that both δ and α increase significantly at lower temperatures, relative to the values obtained in the high temperature phase and at the onset of dimeration at 14 K. Static structure factor calculations how Scattering inconsistent with the δâJ1âJ2 model and can be attributed primarily to the phonon degrees of freedom but possibly also to the couplings between chains in the b and a directions of the crystal lattice. Structurally dimerized compounds of antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chains possess dynamic structure factor and magnetic susceptibility features that are very sensitive to doping with magnetic and nonmagnetic impurities. It is shown that the effects of spin-1 impurities are very similar to those of nonmagnetic (S = 0) impurities if the coupling between impurity and native spin is about the same magnitude as or larger than between native S = 1/2 spins. The microscopic origins of the similarity can be appreciated with the consideration that neighboring spins to the impurity find it more energetically favorable to couple to the impurity than the other spins of the lattice. Thus the spin-1 impurity and its neighboring S = 1/2 spins decouple from the lattice, creating a nonmagnetic break in the chain. The spins that now observe a nonmagnetic cluster on one side can couple to the S = 1/2 spins on the other side with a higher AF correlation than in the pure compound since they do not have to have a ï¬uctuating dimer resonating between two neighbors. Such enhancements to the local correlations can stabilize the global AF order in one dimensional compounds as shown in theoretical and experimental studies of CuGeO3. ED calculations of the dynamic structure factor show that S(q, ω) developes states with ω = 0 in the gap at q = π. Magnetic susceptibilites in the presense of spin-1 impurities were obtained for 80 site chains by QMC simulations and for 16 site chains by ED calculations. An impurity concentration-dependent second peak in the low temperature region reveals an increasing second maximum with T as observed in doped copper germanates and suggests that the results of the study are applicable even to phonon mediated dimerization. This is not immediately apparent because spin-phonon coupling could distort the dimerization patterns. However, experimental and theoretical results show that elastic coupling between chains can stabilize the dimerization pattern due to the impurities and the results will still apply.
Compounds such as vanadyl pirophosphate (VO2)P2O7 and some cuprate systems (example: SrCu2O3 and Sr2Cu3O5) are experimental realizations of the Heisenberg ladders. These compounds are well known examples of strongly correlated systems. The physics of these systems is described, correctly, only by non-perturbative methods. In this work, we investigate the spin-S N-leg Heisenberg ladders using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) technique. We obtain estimates of the ground state energy per site, in thermodynamic limit (e∞), as well as of the spin gap (ΔS) for the ladders with spin up to S = 5/2 . We found that for half-integer spin ladders the spin gap is zero (finite) for N odd (even); whereas for the integer spin ladders our results support a finite spin gap, independent of the number of legs. These results are in agreement with the Haldane-Sierra s conjecture [1 3]. We also estimate the value of e∞ for the two-dimensional spin-S Heisenberg model from the ground state energies, in the thermodynamic limit, of the Heisenberg ladders.
The antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the three-leg ladder is studied using the generalized Jordan-Wigner transformation in dimensions higher than 1, and the bond-mean-field theory. The magnetic susceptibility and other thermodynamic quantities are analyzed as a function of the rung-to-leg coupling ratio $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ and temperature
T. We fit the experimental susceptibility data of the three-leg material
Sr2Cu3O5 of Azuma and co-workers with good agreement. One of the main findings of this work is the proposal that close to two-thirds of the spin degrees of freedom on each of the rungs of the ladder lock at low
T for small $\ensuremath{\alpha}$, then collectively almost
2∕3 of the spin degrees of freedom on all the rungs freeze completely at low
T for $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ greater than a threshold value. The approach developed here can be used to study the three-leg ladder for all values of $\ensuremath{\alpha}$, and is thus suitable for the description of the crossover regime between the weak- and strong-coupling regimes.
Thermodynamic properties of spin=1/2 two-leg ladders with alternating chains including ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions are discussed on the basis of the numerical results obtained by quantum Monte Carlo simulations. As well as the role of exchange interaction of rungs, the essential role of the bond alternation in the chain on ladder systems is investigated in connection with the appearance of characteristic properties in magnetic susceptibilities and heat capacities. Furthermore, quantum effects on the ground-state energy are obtained. On the basis of calculated results, the relationship between singlet dimer phases and Haldane states is discussed.
This article considers recent advances in the investigation of the thermal and magnetic properties of integrable spin ladder models and their applicability to the physics of strong coupling ladder compounds. For this class of compounds the rung coupling J ⊥ is much stronger than the coupling J ∥ along the ladder legs. The ground state properties of the integrable two-leg spin- and the mixed spin-() ladder models at zero temperature are analysed by means of the Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz (TBA). Solving the TBA equations yields exact results for the critical fields and critical behaviour. The thermal and magnetic properties of the models are discussed in terms of the recently introduced High Temperature Expansion (HTE) method, which is reviewed in detail. In the strong coupling region the integrable spin- ladder model exhibits three quantum phases: (i) a gapped phase in the regime , (ii) a fully polarized phase for , and (iii) a Luttinger liquid magnetic phase in the regime H c1<H<H c2. The critical behaviour in the vicinity of the critical points H c1 and H c2 is of Pokrovsky-Talapov type. The temperature-dependent thermal and magnetic properties are directly evaluated from the exact free energy expression and compared to known experimental results for the strong coupling ladder compounds (5IAP)2CuBr4· 2H2O, Cu2(C5H12N2)2Cl4, (C5H12N)2CuBr4, BIP-BNO and [Cu2(C2\O 2)(C10H8N2)2)](NO3)2. Similar analysis of the mixed spin-() ladder model reveals a rich phase diagram, with a and a full saturation magnetization plateau within the strong antiferromagnetic rung coupling regime. For weak rung coupling, the fractional magnetization plateau is diminished and a new quantum phase transition occurs. The phase diagram can be directly deduced from the magnetization curve obtained from the exact result derived from the TBA and HTE. The results are applied to the mixed ferrimagnetic ladder compound PNNBNO. The thermodynamics of the spin-orbital model with different single-ion anisotropies is also discussed. For this model single-ion anisotropy can trigger different quantum phase transitions within the spin and orbital degrees of freedom, with magnetization plateaux arising from different spin and orbit Landé g-factors.