Disordered Flat Phase in a Solid on Solid Model of Fcc(110) Surfaces and Dimer States in Quantum Spin-1/2 Chains

TL;DR

This paper models fcc(110) surfaces using a solid-on-solid approach, revealing a disordered flat phase characterized by a dimer state, with phase transitions analyzed through quantum spin chain mappings and exact diagonalization.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized SOS model for fcc(110) surfaces and maps it onto a quantum spin chain, identifying a disordered flat phase and analyzing its critical behavior.

Findings

Discovered a disordered flat phase with dimer order.

Identified phase transitions belonging to the 2D Ising universality class.

Mapped surface phenomena to quantum spin chain models.

Abstract

We present a restricted solid on solid hamiltonian for fcc (110) surfaces. It is the simplest generalization of the exactly solvable BCSOS model which is able to describe a $(2\times 1)$ missing-row reconstructed surface. We study this model by mapping it onto a quantum spin-1/2 chain of the Heisenberg type, with second and third neighbor $S^z_iS^z_j$ couplings. The ground state phase diagram of the spin-chain model is studied by exact diagonalization of finite chains up to $N=28$ sites, as well as through analytical techniques. We find four phases in the phase diagram: two ordered phases in which the spins have a N\'eel-type of long range order (an unreconstructed and a missing-row reconstructed phase, in the surface language), a spin liquid phase (representing a rough surface), and an intermediate dimer phase which breaks translational invariance and has a doubly degenerate ground state, corresponding to a disordered flat surface. The transition from the $(2\times 1)$ reconstructed phase to the disordered flat phase belongs to the $2D$ Ising universality class. A critical (preroughening) line with varying exponents separates the unreconstructed phase from the disordered flat phase. The possible experimental signatures of the disordered flat phase are discussed.