Magnetization plateaux induced by a coupling to the lattice

T. VEKUA, D.C. CABRA, A. DOBRY, C. GAZZA, D. POILBLANC

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Año: 2006 vol. 96 p. 117205 - 117209

0031-9007

We investigate a simple model of a frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain coupled to adiabatic phonons under an external magnetic field. Using field theoretic methods complemented by extensive Density Matrix Renormalisation Group techniques generalized to include self-consistent lattice distortions, we show that magnetization plateaux at non-trivial rational values of the magnetization can be stabilized by the lattice coupling. We suggest that such a scenario could be relevant for some low dimensional frustrated spin-Peierls compounds.