Magnetization of the Shastry-Sutherland antiferromagnet near the Ising limit

TL;DR

This paper investigates the magnetization behavior of the Shastry-Sutherland antiferromagnet under strong Ising anisotropy, revealing a 1/3 plateau and potential stabilization of a 1/2 plateau due to quantum fluctuations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the phase diagram near the Ising limit, highlighting the emergence of a 1/2 magnetization plateau induced by quantum effects.

Findings

Only a 1/3 magnetization plateau exists in the classical Ising limit.

Quantum fluctuations can stabilize a narrow 1/2 plateau.

The study connects theoretical predictions with recent experimental observations.

Abstract

Motivated by recent experiments on TmB4 (arXiv:0712.1537), we examine the phase diagram of the Shastry-Sutherland antiferromagnet in an applied magnetic field in the limit of strong Ising anisotropy. In classical Ising limit, we demonstrate that the only fractional magnetization plateau is at 1/3 of the saturated magnetization. We study the perturbative influence of transverse quantum spin fluctuations, and present evidence that they can stabilize a narrow 1/2 magnetization plateau.