Critical Properties of a Spin-1/2 Ising Bilayer System in a Transverse Field

Abstract

Within the framework of the effective-field theory, the phase diagram (transition temperature T c and critical transverse field Ω c ) of a ferroelectric bilayer system is studied on the basis of the spin-1/2 transverse Ising model consisting of two different ferroelectric slabs with the same thickness L. The dependences of T c and Ω c on L and the inter-slab exchange coupling R are examined and discussed. We find some unexpected phenomena in the phase diagrams of the system with a thin thickness L, such as the frustration effect due to the large values of R and transverse field Ω.