Combined effect of frustration and dimerization in ferrimagnetic chains and square lattice

Abstract

Within the zero-temperature linear spin-wave theory we have investigated the effect of frustration and dimerization of a Heisenberg system with alternating spins $s_{1}$ and $s_{2}$ on one- and two-dimensional lattices. The combined effect most visibly appears in the elementary excitation spectra. In contrast to the ground state energy that decreases with dimerization and increases with frustration, the excitation energies are shown to be suppressed in energy by both dimerization and frustration. The threshold value of frustration that signals a transition from a classical ferrimagnetic state to a spiral state, decreases with dimerization, showing that dimerization further helps in the phase transition. The correlation length and sublattice magnetization decrease with both dimerization and frustration indicating the destruction of the long-range classical ferrimagnetic. The linear spin wave theory shows that in the case of a square lattice, dimerization initially opposes the frustration-led transition to a spiral magnetic state, but then higher magnitudes of lattice deformation facilitate the transition. It also shows that the transition to spiral state is inhibited in a square lattice beyond a certain value of dimerization.