Enhanced magnetoelectric effect of the exactly solved spin-electron model on a doubly decorated square lattice in the vicinity of a continuous phase transition

Abstract

Magnetoelectric properties of a coupled spin-electron model on a doubly decorated square lattice in an external electric field applied along the crystallographic axis [11] are rigorously examined with the help of generalized decoration-iteration transformation. The phase diagram, spontaneous magnetization and electric polarization are exactly calculated and their dependencies are comprehensively investigated under a concurrent influence of temperature and electric field. It is found that the electric field mostly stabilizes at zero temperature the spontaneous antiferromagnetic order with respect to the ferromagnetic one. At finite temperatures the external electric field gradually suppresses a spontaneous ferromagnetic (antiferromagnetic) order emergent close to a quarter (half) filling. An enhanced magnetoelectric response is detectable in vicinity of a continuous phase transition at which the spontaneous magnetization vanishes and the electric polarization displays a weak-type singularity. It is demonstrated that reentrant phase transitions of the ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic phase may be induced at moderate values of the electric field, which simultaneously produces a sharp kink in a critical line of the ferromagnetic phase nearby a quarter filling.