Ground-state phase diagram of the spin-1/2 square-lattice J1-J2 model with plaquette structure

TL;DR

This paper maps the ground-state phases of a quantum spin-1/2 J1-J2 square lattice model with plaquette structure, revealing how quantum effects and inter-plaquette interactions influence magnetic and nonmagnetic phases.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed quantum phase diagram of the J1-J2 model with plaquette structure using high-order coupled cluster and exact diagonalization methods.

Findings

Identification of Neel and collinear magnetic phases at different J2/J1 ratios.

Discovery of a nonmagnetic quantum paramagnetic phase whose region expands as inter-plaquette coupling decreases.

Observation of a plaquette phase with long-range order in the ferromagnetic J1 case.

Abstract

Using the coupled cluster method for high orders of approximation and Lanczos exact diagonalization we study the ground-state phase diagram of a quantum spin-1/2 J1-J2 model on the square lattice with plaquette structure. We consider antiferromagnetic (J1>0) as well as ferromagnetic (J1<0) nearest-neighbor interactions together with frustrating antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor interaction J2>0. The strength of inter-plaquette interaction lambda varies between lambda=1 (that corresponds to the uniform J1-J2 model) and lambda=0 (that corresponds to isolated frustrated 4-spin plaquettes). While on the classical level (s \to \infty) both versions of models (i.e., with ferro- and antiferromagnetic J1) exhibit the same ground-state behavior, the ground-state phase diagram differs basically for the quantum case s=1/2. For the antiferromagnetic case (J1 > 0) Neel antiferromagnetic long-range order at small J2/J1 and lambda \gtrsim 0.47 as well as collinear striped antiferromagnetic long-range order at large J2/J1 and lambda \gtrsim 0.30 appear which correspond to their classical counterparts. Both semi-classical magnetic phases are separated by a nonmagnetic quantum paramagnetic phase. The parameter region, where this nonmagnetic phase exists, increases with decreasing of lambda. For the ferromagnetic case (J1 < 0) we have the trivial ferromagnetic ground state at small J2/|J1|. By increasing of J2 this classical phase gives way for a semi-classical plaquette phase, where the plaquette block spins of length s=2 are antiferromagnetically long-range ordered. Further increasing of J2 then yields collinear striped antiferromagnetic long-range order for lambda \gtrsim 0.38, but a nonmagnetic quantum paramagnetic phase lambda \lesssim 0.38.