Ground-State Phase Diagram of S = 2 Heisenberg Chains with Alternating Single-Site Anisotropy

Abstract

The ground-state phase diagram of $S=2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chains with coexisting uniform and alternating single-site anisotropies is investigated by the numerical exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group methods. We find the Haldane, large-$D$, N\'eel, period-doubled N\'eel, gapless spin fluid, quantized and partial ferrimagnetic phases. The Haldane phase is limited to the close neighborhood of the isotropic point. Within numerical accuracy, the transition from the gapless spin-fluid phase to the period-doubled N\'eel phase is a direct transition. Nevertheless, the presence of a narrow spin-gap phase between these two phases is suggested on the basis of the low-energy effective theory. The ferrimagnetic ground state is present in a wide parameter range. This suggests the realization of magnetized single-chain magnets with a uniform spin magnitude by controlling the environment of each magnetic ion without introducing ferromagnetic interactions.