Abstract
The ground-state magnetic phase diagram of a spin S=1/2 two-leg ladder with alternating rung exchange J⊥(n)=J⊥[1 + (-1)n δ] is studied using the analytical and numerical approaches. In the limit where the rung exchange is dominant, we have mapped the model onto the effective quantum sine-Gordon model with topological term and identified two quantum phase transitions at magnetization equal to the half of saturation value from a gapped to the gapless regime. These quantum transitions belong to the universality class of the commensurate-incommensurate phase transition. We have also shown that the magnetization curve of the system exhibits a plateau at magnetization equal to the half of the saturation value. We also present a detailed numerical analysis of the low energy excitation spectrum and the ground state magnetic phase diagram of the ladder with rung-exchange alternation using Lanczos method of numerical diagonalizations for ladders with number of sites up to N = 28. We have calculated numerically the magnetic field dependence of the low-energy excitation spectrum, magnetization and the on-rung spin-spin correlation function. We have also calculated the width of the magnetization plateau and show that it scales as δν, where critical exponent varies from ν = 0.87±0.01 in the case of a ladder with isotropic antiferromagnetic legs to ν = 1.82±0.01 in the case of ladder with ferromagnetic legs. Obtained numerical results are in an complete agreement with estimations made within the continuum-limit approach.
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Japaridze, G., Mahdavifar, S. Magnetic phase diagram of the dimerized spin S = 1/2 ladder. Eur. Phys. J. B 68, 59–66 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2009-00077-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2009-00077-7