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arXiv:cond-mat/0110399 · Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Surface-induced disorder and aperiodic perturbations at first-order transitions

Loïc Turban, Ferenc Iglói

Published Jul 19, 2002• 13 citations
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Abstract

In systems displaying a bulk first-order transition the order parameter may vanish continuously at a free surface, a phenomenon which is called surface-induced disorder. In the presence of surface-induced disorder the correlation lengths, parallel and perpendicular to the surface, diverge at the bulk transition point. In this way the surface induces an anisotropic power-law singular behavior for some bulk quantities. For example, in a finite system of transverse linear size L, the response functions diverge as ${L}^{(d\ensuremath{-}1)z+1},$ where d is the dimension of the system and z is the anisotropy exponent. We present a general scaling picture for this anisotropic discontinuity fixed point. Our phenomenological results are confronted with analytical and numerical calculations on the two-dimensional q-state Potts model in the large-$q$ limit. The scaling results are demonstrated to apply also for the same model with a layered, Fibonacci-type modulation of the couplings for which the anisotropy exponent is a continuous function of the strength of the quasiperiodic perturbation.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.66.014440

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In systems displaying a bulk first-order transition the order parameter may vanish continuously at a free surface, a phenomenon which is called surface-induced disorder. In the presence of surface-induced disorder the correlation lengths, parallel and perpendicular to the surface, diverge at the bulk transition point. In this way the surface induces an anisotropic power-law singular behavior for some bulk quantities. For example, in a finite system of transverse linear size L, the response functions diverge as L(d\ensuremath−1)z+1,{L}^{(d\ensuremath{-}1)z+1},L(d\ensuremath−1)z+1, where d is the dimension of the system and z is the anisotropy exponent. We present a general scaling picture for this anisotropic discontinuity fixed point. Our phenomenological results are confronted with analytical and numerical calculations on the two-dimensional q-state Potts model in the large-qqq limit. The scaling results are demonstrated to apply also for the same model with a layered, Fibonacci-type modulation of the couplings for which the anisotropy exponent is a continuous function of the strength of the quasiperiodic perturbation.
Systems with a bulk first-order transition can display diverging correlation lengths close to a surface. This surface induced disordering yields a special type of surface criticality. Using extensive numerical simulations we study surface quantities in the two-dimensional Potts model with a large number of states qqq which undergoes a discontinuous bulk transition. The surface critical exponents are thereby found to depend on the value of qqq, which is in contrast to prior claims that these exponents should be universal and independent of qqq. It follows that surface-induced disordering at first-order transitions is characterized by exponents that depend on the details of the model.
We study the influence of an aperiodic extended surface perturbation on the surface critical behaviour of the two-dimensional Ising model in the extreme anisotropic limit. The perturbation decays as a power κ of the distance l from the free surface with an oscillating amplitude Al=(−1)flAA_l = ( - 1)^{f_l } AAl​=(−1)fl​A where f l = 0, 1 follows some aperiodic sequence with an asymptotic density equal to 1/2 so that the mean amplitude vanishes. The relevance of the perturbation is discussed by combining scaling arguments of Cordery and Burkhardt for the Hilhorst-van Leeuwen model and Luck for aperiodic perturbations. The relevance-irrelevance criterion involves the decay exponent κ, the wandering exponent ω which governs the fluctuation of the sequence and the bulk correlation length exponent ν. Analytical results are obtained for the surface magnetization which displays a rich variety of critical behaviours in the (κ, ω)-plane. The results are checked through a numerical finite-size-scaling study. They show that second-order effects must be taken into account in the discussion of the relevance-irrelevance criterion. The scaling behaviours of the first gap and the surface energy are also discussed.
The surface and bulk properties of the two-dimensional Q>4Q>4Q>4 state Potts model in the vicinity of the first-order bulk transition point have been studied by exact calculations and by density-matrix renormalization-group techniques. For the surface transition the complete analytical solution of the problem is presented in the $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{Q}\ensuremath{\infty}$ limit, including the critical and tricritical exponents, magnetization profiles, and scaling functions. We have shown in an accurate numerical study that the universality class of the surface transition is independent of the value of Q>4.Q>4.Q>4. For the bulk transition we have numerically calculated the latent heat and the magnetization discontinuity and we have shown that the correlation lengths in the ordered and disordered phases are identical at the transition point.
The surface critical behaviour of the semi-infinite one-dimensional quantum Ising model in a transverse field is studied in the presence of an aperiodic surface-extended modulation. The perturbed couplings are distributed according to a generalized Fredholm sequence, leading to a marginal perturbation and varying surface exponents. The surface magnetic exponents are calculated exactly, whereas the expression of the surface energy density exponent is conjectured from a finite-size scaling study. The system displays surface order at the bulk critical point, above a critical value of the modulation amplitude. It may be considered as a discrete realization of the Hilhorst-van Leeuwen model.
Two-dimensional layered aperiodic Ising systems are studied in the extreme anisotropic limit where they correspond to quantum Ising chains in a transverse field. The modulation of the couplings follows an aperiodic sequence generated through substitution. According to Luck's criterion, such a perturbation becomes marginal when the wandering exponent of the sequence vanishes. Three marginal sequences are considered: the period-doubling, paper-folding and three-folding sequences. They correspond to bulk perturbations for which the critical temperature is shifted. The surface magnetization is obtained exactly for the three sequences. The scaling dimensions of the local magnetization on both surfaces vary continuously with the modulation factor. The low-energy excitations of the quantum chains are found to scale as L^z with the size L of the system. This is the behaviour expected for a strongly anisotropic system, where z is the ratio of the exponents of the correlation lengths in the two directions. The anisotropy exponent z is equal to the sum of the scaling dimensions of the local magnetization on the two surfaces. The anisotropic scaling behaviour is verified numerically for other surface and bulk critical properties as well.
We study the surface scaling behavior of a semi-infinite d-dimensional O(N) spin system in the presence of a quenched random field and random anisotropy disorders. It is known that above the lower critical dimension d(LC) = 4 the infinite models undergo a paramagnetic-ferromagnetic transition for N > N(c) (N(c) = 2.835 for the random field and N(c) =9.441 for random anisotropy). For N < N(c) and d < d(LC) there exists a quasi-long-range-order phase with a zero order parameter and a power-law decay of spin correlations. Using a functional renormalization group, we derive the surface scaling laws that describe the ordinary surface transition for d > d(LC) and the long-range behavior of spin correlations near the surface in the quasi-long-range-order phase for d < d(LC). The corresponding surface exponents are calculated to one-loop order. The obtained results can be applied to the surface scaling of periodic elastic systems in disordered media, amorphous magnets, and (3)He-A in aerogel.