Low-temperature metastable states in a stacked triangular Ising antiferromagnet

TL;DR

This study uses Monte Carlo simulations to explore low-temperature metastable states and hysteresis in a stacked triangular Ising antiferromagnet, revealing multiple magnetic plateaus and remanence phenomena.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the low-temperature magnetic behavior and metastable states of a stacked triangular Ising antiferromagnet, including the discovery of an additional magnetic plateau.

Findings

Multiple magnetization steps and hysteresis observed.

Confirmation of a fourth magnetic plateau at low temperature.

Presence of sizable remanence when decreasing the field.

Abstract

We study low-temperature magnetization processes in a stacked triangular Ising antiferromagnet by Monte Carlo simulations. In increasing and decreasing magnetic fields we observe multiple steps and hysteresis corresponding to formation of different metastable states. Besides the equidistant threefold splitting of the 1/3 ferrimagnetic plateau, we additionally confirm a fourth plateau in the field-increasing branch and a sizable remanence when the field is decreased to zero. The newly observed plateau only appears at sufficiently low temperature and sufficiently large exchange interaction in the stacking direction. These observations reasonably reproduce low-temperatures measurements on the spin-chain compound $\rm{Ca}_3\rm{Co}_2\rm{O}_6$.