Metastable states in two dimensional Ising model with dipolar interactions

PABLO GLEISER, FRANCISCO TAMARIT, SERGIO CANNAS

PHYSICA D - NONLINEAR PHENOMENA

Año: 2002 vol. 168 p. 73 - 79

0167-2789

 The equilibrium phase diagram of a two-dimensional Ising model with competing exchange and dipolar interactions is analyzed using a Monte Carlo simulation technique. We consider the low temperature region of the (δ, T ) phase diagram (δ being the ratio between the strengths of the exchange and dipolar interactions) for the range of values of δ where stripedphases with widths h = 1 and 2 are present. We show that the transition line between both phases is a first order one. We also show that, associated with the first-order phase transition, there appear metastable states of the phase h = 2 in the region where the phase h = 1 is the thermodynamically stable one and vice versea