Magnetization Plateaux in Random Frustrated S=1/2 Heisenberg Chains

Abstract

The $S=1/2$ frustrated Heisenberg chains with bond alternation is known to exhibit a magnetization plateau at half of the saturation magnetization $\Ms$ accompanied by the spontanuous translational symmetry breakdown. The effect of randomness on the magnetization process of this model is investigated. First we consider the mixture of the two kinds of chains both of which possess the $\Ms/2$-plateau in the common interval of the magnetization field. The plateau at $\Ms/2$ is found to vanish immediately if the randomness is switched on in agreement with Totsuka's prediction. The small plateau also appears near the saturation field due to the localization of inverted spins around the minority bond. On the other hand, if the stronger bond is replaced by the ferromagnetic bonds randomly, the randomness induced fractional plateau appears as in the nonfrustrated case. The plateau at $\Ms/2$ does not simply vanish but shifts and splits into two smaller plateaux. The magnetization on this plateau varies nonlinearly with $1-p$. The physical origin of this behavior is explained based on the strong coupling picture.