Magnetization process in a frustrated plaquette dimerized ladder

Abstract

The magnetic phase diagram of a plaquette dimerized antiferromagnetic system is studied by using a combination of numerical and analytical techniques. For the strongly frustrated regime, series expansions and bond operators techniques are employed to analyze zero magnetization plateau, whereas low energy effective models are used to study the complete magnetization process. The interplay between frustration and dimerization gives rise to a rich plateaus structure that is captured by effective models and corroborated by numerical density matrix renormalization group simulations, in particular the emergence of intermediate plateaus at M = 1/4 and 3/4 of saturation in the magnetization curve.