Magnetic response and antiferromagnetic correlations in strained kagome ribbons

Abstract

We study the physics of the strong-coupling Hubbard model in a kagome lattice ribbon under mechanical tension and half-filling. It is known that in the absence of strain, the lattice symmetry of the system and strong electronic interactions induce magnetic frustration. As uniaxial strain is applied, the ribbon exhibits various configurations with energy oscillations that depend on the direction of the strain axis. The ground states are obtained by density-matrix renormalization-group calculations. We find that the system is characterized by strong antiferromagnetic bonds distributed throughout the lattice in directions and patterns that depend on strain directions and may coexist with easily polarizable sites that are only weakly correlated to their neighbors. We identify frustration and correlation measures that follow the strain and interaction dependence of the system well. These results illustrate that strain-dependent magnetic susceptibility could be explored experimentally to help probe the role of symmetry and interactions in these systems.