Magnetization and magnetic phase diagrams of a spin-1/2 ferrimagnetic diamond chain at low temperature* *Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11374215 and 11704262), the Scientific Study Project from Education Department of Liaoning Province of China (Grant No. LJ2019004), and the Natural Science Foundation Guidance Project of Liaoning Province of China (Grant No. 2019-ZD-0070).

Abstract

We used the Jordan–Wigner transform and the invariant eigenoperator method to study the magnetic phase diagram and the magnetization curve of the spin-1/2 alternating ferrimagnetic diamond chain in an external magnetic field at finite temperature. The magnetization versus external magnetic field curve exhibits a 1/3 magnetization plateau at absolute zero and finite temperatures, and the width of the 1/3 magnetization plateau was modulated by tuning the temperature and the exchange interactions. Three critical magnetic field intensities H CB, H CE and H CS were obtained, in which the H CB and H CE correspond to the appearance and disappearance of the 1/3 magnetization plateau, respectively, and the higher H CS correspond to the appearance of fully polarized magnetization plateau of the system. The energies of elementary excitation ℏ ω σ,k (σ = 1, 2, 3) present the extrema of zero at the three critical magnetic fields at 0 K, i.e., [ℏ ω 3,k (H CB)]min = 0, [ℏ ω 2,k (H CE)]max = 0 and [ℏ ω 2,k (H CS)]min = 0, and the magnetic phase diagram of magnetic field versus different exchange interactions at 0 K was established by the above relationships. According to the relationships between the system’s magnetization curve at finite temperatures and the critical magnetic field intensities, the magnetic field-temperature phase diagram was drawn. It was observed that if the magnetic phase diagram shows a three-phase critical point, which is intersected by the ferrimagnetic phase, the ferrimagnetic plateau phase, and the Luttinger liquid phase, the disappearance of the 1/3 magnetization plateau would inevitably occur. However, the 1/3 magnetization plateau would not disappear without the three-phase critical point. The appearance of the 1/3 magnetization plateau in the low temperature region is the macroscopic manifestations of quantum effect.