Magnetization plateaus of an exactly solvable spin-1 Ising-Heisenberg diamond chain

TL;DR

This paper presents an exact solution for the spin-1 Ising-Heisenberg diamond chain in a magnetic field, revealing complex quantum ground states and stepwise magnetization plateaus at fractional saturation levels.

Contribution

It provides the first exact ground-state phase diagram for this model, identifying three unconventional quantum states with entanglement and demonstrating multiple magnetization plateaus.

Findings

Identification of three quantum ground states with entanglement.

Observation of three intermediate magnetization plateaus.

Validation of the Oshikawa-Yamanaka-Affleck criterion in this system.

Abstract

The spin-1 Ising-Heisenberg diamond chain in a magnetic field is exactly solved by a rigorous treatment based on the transfer-matrix method. An exact ground-state phase diagram includes in total three unconventional quantum ground states with a quantum entanglement of the decorating spin-1 Heisenberg dimers apart from two ground states with a classical spin arrangement. It is evidenced that all three values of the magnetization allowed for the spin-1 diamond chain without translationally broken symmetry by the Oshikawa-Yamanaka-Affleck criterion can become evident in an outstanding stepwise magnetization curve with three intermediate plateaus at zero, one-third, and two-thirds of the saturation magnetization.