Magnetization Process of the Classical Heisenberg Model on the Shastry-Sutherland Lattice

M.MOLINER, D.C. CABRA, A. HONECKER, P.PUJOL, F. STAUFFER

PHYSICAL REVIEW B

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Año: 2009 vol. 79 p. 144401 - 144410

1098-0121

We investigate classical Heisenberg spins on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice and under an external magnetic field. A detailed study is carried out both analytically and numerically by means of classical Monte-Carlo simulations. Magnetization pseudo-plateaux are observed around 1/3 of the saturation magnetization for a range of values of the magnetic couplings. We show that the existence of the pseudo-plateau is due to an entropic selection of a particular collinear state. A phase diagram that shows the domains of existence of those pseudo-plateaux in the $(h, T)$ plane is obtained