Role of frustration in a weakly disordered checkerboard lattice

Abstract

Quenched disorder effects on frustrated systems are explored by considering random fluctuations on the antiferromagnetic (AF) interactions between spins on the checkerboard lattice. The replica framework is adopted within a cluster mean-field approach, resulting in an effective single-cluster model. This effective model is treated within a one-step replica symmetry breaking (RSB) approach with exact evaluations for all intracluster interactions. Competing interactions are introduced by tuning the ratio J2/J1 (where J1 and J2 are first-neighbor and second-neighbor interactions, respectively), which can lead to a highly frustrated scenario when J2/J1→1, where a phase transition between AF orders takes place in the absence of disorder. In particular, the AF order appears at lower values of J2/J1, with the Néel temperature decreasing as the frustration increases. However, quenched disorder changes this description, introducing a RSB spin-glass phase for strong enough disorder intensity J. In fact, for low levels of disorder, a RSB solution with staggered magnetization (mixed phase) emerges from the maximum frustration region. It suggests that, in the presence of weak quenched disorder, systems with competing interactions are prone to present a glassy behavior instead of conventional orders.