Influence of a spatial anisotropy on presence of the intermediate one-half magnetization plateau of a spin-1/2 Ising-Heisenberg branched chain

Abstract

A spin-1/2 Ising-Heisenberg branched chain constituted by regularly alternating Ising spins and Heisenberg dimers involving an additional side branching is exactly solved in a magnetic field by the transfer-matrix method. The spin-1/2 Ising-Heisenberg branched chain involves two different Ising and one Heisenberg coupling constants. The overall ground-state phase diagram is formed by three different ground states emergent depending on a mutual interplay between the magnetic field and three considered coupling constants: the modulated quantum antiferromagnetic phase, the quantum ferrimagnetic phase, and the classical ferromagnetic phase. It is shown that the interaction anisotropy connected to two different Ising coupling constants substantially influences a breakdown of the intermediate one-half magnetization plateau, which represents a macroscopic manifestation of the quantum ferrimagnetic phase.