Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bak 1980
Bak 1980
J. von Boehm
NORD/ TA, BID'&Iarrrsi'ej I 7, Crrperrhaperr, Derrirrarh
(Received 24 A ugust 1979)
We have analyzed the modulated phase ot' an Ising model with competing interactions in an
et'fort to increase the understanding of the spatially modulated phases t'ound in many physical
systems. The analysis has three stages. First, the mean-field phase diagram is calculated nu-
merically. A large, possibly infinite, number of phases where the periodicity ot' the ordered
structure is cornrnensurate with the lattice is f'ound. The resulting periodicity-versus-
temperature curve thus probably has an inf'inity of'steps; i. e. , it exhibits "the devil's staircase"
behavior. Then the mean-field theory is analyzed analytically, and it is shown that the stability
of' the commensurate phases can be understood within a domain-wall or "soliton" theory. The
solitons from a regular lattice near the transitions to the commensurate phases. The elementary
excitations in the soliton lattice are the phasons. Third, the effects of' temperature-induced fluc-
tuations, ignored in the mean-field theory, are estimated by calculating the entropy contribution
to the free energy f'rom the phasons. It is found that the stability ranges of the commensurate
phases are reduced, but the staircase survives at finite temperatures. On the basis of our calcu-
lations a phase diagram is constructed.
lated phase."
with competing interactions which exhibits a modu-
The model in its present form was in-
vented by Elliot' to describe the sinusoidally modu-
commensurate phases. The resulting wave-vector-
versus-pressure curve is continuous, but nonanalytic.
The mathernaticians have invented the very pic-
lated phase of erbium. Despite the simplicity of the turesque name "the devil's staircase" for this peculiar
model, the phase diagram turns out to be extremely behavior. "
Unfortunately, there is no hope of distin-
rich, including a number of transitions between guishing between the various types of nonanalytical
periodic phases, including a floating unpinned phase. behavior in a numerical calculation, or in an experi-
The theory is quite complicated, involving esoteric ment. In an experiment, one should expect to see at
concepts such as solitons, phasons, and "the devil' s most a finite number of steps. It is therefore impera-
staircase. " tive to do analytical work on simple model systems.
In general, the distinction is made between "com- In addition to the above mentioned global
mensurate" phases, where the periodicity of the phenomenological theories, Frank and Van der
modulated structure is a (simple) multiple of the lat- Merwe, ' McMillan, ' Luban et g/. , ' and Bak and
tice constant and incommensurate phases where this Emery' have developed a domain-wall, or "soliton""
is not the case. In other words, the wave vector theory for the transition from an incommensurate
characterizing the commensurate phase is a rational phase to a specific commensurate phase, the CI tran-
fraction of a reciprocal-lattice vector. There exist a sition. The analysis to be presented here makes ex-
few phenomenological theories for modulated sys- tensive use of the soliton picture.
tems. Using a simple Landau-type argument, Dzy- Our original motivation for studying a magnetic
aloshinsky' argued that the periodic phase is always model of a modulated structure was the results of
commensurate. Pokrovsky' also suggests that the some interesting experiments' "
on the rare-earth
wave-vector-versus-temperature curve "locks-in" at magnet CeSb. As the temperature is lowered, CeSb
every rational value, but in between the commensu- displays a series of phase transitions between com-
mensurate phases. To investigate the change of "experimentally" by a Monte Carlo method, and they
periodicity versus temperature, we have recently' have been able to confirm some of our findings.
studied a simple S = , model with ternperature- Our analysis has three stages. First the mean-field
independent competing nearest- and next-nearest- phase diagram is calculated numerically (Sec. III).
neighbor interactions. Our findings, based on a nu- Indeed, the MF phase diagram includes a large, pos-
sibly infinite, number of commensurate phases, as
merica1 solution to the mean-field (MF) theory, were
the I'ollowing: (i) The periodicity changes in a step- could be expected from our previous analysis, " and
wise manner very similar to the behavior of CeSb. in agreement with the various phenomenological
Over large temperature intervals, the periodicity theories. '' A short account of this numerical work
"locks-in" at a few commensurate values, and (ii) by was given at the APS March meeting, 1979.
refining the calculation, we found more and more Second, in Sec. IV, the mean-field theory is
phases. These additional phases were stable in only analyzed analytically, and it is shown that the stability
extremely narrow temperature intervals and would of the commensurate phases can be understood
probably not be observable. This is consistent with within a "soliton" picture, The solitons are domain
"the devil's staircase. " walls between essentially commensurate domains.
There is no reason why this behavior should be The results of the soliton theory agree quantitatively
unique for an S = , model. The staircase is a conse- with the numerical results. The theory explains the
5
0.5 I.O
1 Q) li d il d l~ ~ n li n u h li ll ll h II
'The model that we shall study is a simple spin- ,
xo
1/ T (2. 1)
ground state is formed by introducing the maximum
We have chosen a unit system with the Boltzmann
constant equal to unity. The susceptibility in the
number of domain walls (with spacing I). This
gives a phase with a periodicity of 4(qo= , ). The
) 1
paramagnetic phase is
ordered structure is formed by two layers of "up"
spins followed by two layers of "down" spins, and so
(2.2)
on. Since the periodicity is different at T =0 and at
T the periodicity of the modulation changes as the
where J(q) is the Fourier transform of the interac- temperature is varied, in contrast to previous belief. '
tions J,
II
between the spins at sites i and i
'
The problem to be investigated here is how this tem-
perature variation takes place.
J(q)=QJ. . exp(iq r. . ) (2.3) Note that the stability of the q = 4 phase could be
1
(ii )
5300 PER BAK AND J. VON BOEHM 21
'
The interactions between spins at sites i and i are The average free energy per spin,
given in Fig. l. In the MF approximation this Hamil-
tonian is replaced by the simpler single-spin Hamil- F(N, T) =
N g
N 1
T ln Trexp MF
tonian ()
teractions
tors are indeed stable, but for extremely narrow tem-
J(0) =4Ji, J(I) = Ji, J(2) = J2 (3.7)
=2.
perature intervals. The wave vector q = 9 is stable
for a temperature range hT =0.0004Tq= , is
3
Ho~ever, there is in principle still an infinity of equa- stable for b, T =0.0004Tand q = ,6 is stable for
3
tions to solve.
b, T =0.03T, . An important point is that some
A very similar model was analyzed in Ref. 18, and
periodicities (even within our limited set) do not be-
the calculations here proceed in essentially the same
way. At each temperature it is assumed that the spin
corne stable. For example, q goes from
2 1
to 6
.
structure repeats itself after N layers. For each N the without assuming the intermediate value q = 17 '
mean-field equations are solved numerically by This is consistent with the "devil's staircase" as de-
means of an iteration procedure. As the starting fined, for example, by Aubry, but certainly not with
average spin configuration either a sinusoidal struc- a smoothly varying wave vector nor with a constant
ture or the self-consistent solution at a nearby tem- incommensurate wave vector.
perature (for the same values of Ji and J2) is used. Note also that the curve is not monotonic. At first
This configuration is used to generate the fields H, , the wave vector q decreases as the temperature is
which again are used to calculate a new spin config- lowered, then it increases until it locks at 4 at the
uration, Usually, self-consistency is obtained after lowest temperatures. The maximum periodicity is 6.
only a few iterations, but for certain values of N and A similar behavior has been found for the suscepti-
T the convergence is slower and some hundred itera-
tions were needed. model. "
bility maximum for the one-dimensional Ising
Most interesting, the periodicity of the or-
21 ISING MODEL WITH SOLITONS, PHASONS, AND . . ~ 5301
I I t 1 I I
I
IO
I/4 P I/ I I I/9 2/17 PM
0.25
(a)
4 I/I5
2/9-
3/l4-
0.20 I/5
3/l6 2/I I
2/I I 3/IT
J 2 = 06
0 I
J = I
0.2 0 25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7
I
Q. l 5 J~ /Jl
I/4
0.25 ed in the following section.
(b)
4/IT ~ Figure 5 (and Figs. 7 and 9) show some typical
stable spin arrangements. Note that near T, the con-
2/9 figurations are almost sinusoidal whereas at lower
3/I4
temperatures they contain a significant amount of
0.20 I/5 higher harmonics. For example, the q = structure
I
A. Stability of q &
"up-up-down-down" phase
FIG. 5. Typical spin arrangements as calculated numeri- One of the most striking features of the phase di-
cally. The solid curves indicate the main harmonic. agrarn is the stability over large regimes of the phase
5302 PER BAK AND J. VON BOEHM
diagram of the q = 1
phase. It will be shown here
4
So
that the stability is related to a positive soliton-
forrnation energy; the transition to other wave vec-
tors is brought about by spontaneous formation of in-
H, ,= g J (S ) + T tanh '(S;) (4.3)
,
=H,CX( ((S, )) . (4. 1) (4 4)
The relation H, ,
( (S;) ) is given by the equation
where N is the number of spins. Minimization of Eq.
H;+H, ,=tanh {4.4) with respect to (S;) yields the MF equations
(S ) =tanh $ J, (S, ) + H, ,/T
.I
(3.3) and (3.4), as it should. Expanding in power
S-
I i series, and introducing Fourier transforms and
(4.2) J(q) of (S;) and J respectively, we find
+ 30 T S S q 5( q + 1
'
+ q6 7 )+ (4.5)
1
Here, vis a reciprocal-lattice vector. The expansion includes two types of terms. First, there are translationally
invariant terms where the wave vectors add up to zero. The second type are "umklapp" terms where the wave
vectors add up to a reciprocal-lattice vector. These terms, which reflect the fact that the spins are situated on a
lattice are responsible for the stability of the commensurate phases. In principle, to get the complete phase di-
agram, we should retain all regular and umklapp terms. Here, the expansion will be truncated after the fourth-
order term since we are interested in the q = 4 phase,
1
Sufficiently close to T, it is sufficient to consider only one wave vector q0 and small fluctuations around it.
Near q0 =2'(0, 0, ) the expansion takes the form
V4
(4.6)
where I = T 4J1 +2Jqa=2J1, c = 4Jq, c'=4J1, and arrive at the following effective Landau-
and q, and qq are the wave-vector deviations from q0 Ginzburg free-energy functional:
parallel and perpendicular to the z axis, respectively.
We have retained urnklapp terms corresponding to 7 F= dr F r)
equal to a unit vector in the z direction.
We now introduce the continuous order parameters
Si4(r)=42
(
3
2m V0+V
e
+ c )7 Sti4 + c') ')7gS(i4)
(4.7)
&
2c
3
s, i( )=42 Jdee p( e )s +
8 T(S)/4
+S 1/4 ) (4.8)
21 ISING MODEL %ITH SOLITONS, PHASONS, AND. . . 5303
The order parameter Sti4( r ) describes a spin density portional to the distance L between the domain stalls
wave
q
-== 2m (4. 16)
S( r ) = (2m i (
1 1
Sti4( r ) exp z) ] (4.9)
2
i.e. , q is the soliton density. This wave vector is
The lattice now manifests itself through the last term, given by the equation'4
which arises from the umklapp terms. To obtain the
q' =
2
stable spin configurations, Eq. (4.8) should be
n.
Z(&) E(&), (4. 17)
minimized with respect to S~/4(r ). Clearly, S]/4 5
depends upon z only.
where K and E are the elliptic integrals of the first
Following Refs. 12 and 14 we now assume that
and second kind, and q is defined by the equation
near the commensurate phase ( q = ) the amplitude
1
of the order parameter is constant whereas the phase (u/u, )'" = ,' 7rq/E(zi) (4. 18)
is allowed to be space dependent; i.e. ,
where v, is a critical value of v given by
S+,i4(z) =A exp+i&(z) (4. io)
v =m5 (4. 19)
The commensurate phase is given by Eqs. (4.9) and
(4. 10) with $ constant. The amplitude A is found by Near the commensurate phase the free energy takes
minimizing Eq. (4.8) in the commensurate phase. By the asymptotic form"
choosing P(z) =5z, we describe a modulated phase 1
with E 4
Jv 16tu 2mJv
isi
q
S(r) = ( z)]
1
(4. )
1
A exp {i gz) exp [2rri
2 (4.2o)
This is an incommensurate spin-density wave with The ai~tisolitons are stable because 5 is negative. The
wave vector q = +8/2e.
1
The free-energy function- first term, proportional to the soliton density, is a sol-
al per unit area perpendicular to z becomes iton formation energy; the second term is a weak
repulsion between solitons. The commensurate
F= dz cA
1 d@
5 +v 1+cosp$, 412) phase is stable as long as the first term is positive.
2 dz hen the coefficient becomes negative, for small v
or large ~5] the commensurate q = phase becomes
1
with
unstable with respect to soliton formation. This hap-
Ji TA' pens at a temperature given by Eqs. (4. 19) and
4 ~ '
4J 96J (4. i3)
and T'c, =4Jt 2Jz+n Jt /8Jz (4.21)
Az =3{4Jt 2Jz T)/T (4. 13) This curve has been plotted in Fig. 6 (lower broken
line). Figures 7 and 9 show the spin structures corre-
The first term favors the incommensurate wave vec-
sponding to the soliton solutions for Jz/Jt = 2 and
tor q = 4 +g/2e. The second term favors the com-
1
I ]
-5 5 Z
2
0.5 I
j ji
I
I I
I I )
I I
I I
I I
FIG. 7. Soliton solution and the corresponding spin struc- FIG. 9. Soliton solution and the corresponding spin struc-
ture, calculated for J&/J] = 2 at the temperature at which ture calculated for J&/J[ = 0. 7 at Tc]. The broken arrows
the commensurate phase becomes unstable ( TC1). The bro- indicate the numerical solution.
ken arrows indicate the numerical solution obtained using
4
the formalism in Sec. III. (q = ,7 ). For clarity, the arrows
are shifted slightly away from the lattice positions. B. Stability of the "three-up-three-down" phase (q )
6
rate structure (with no domain walls) which is stable tion of the phase diagram for J~ near 0.5J]. For a
just below Tct. given value of Jq the periodicity first increases to
Figure 4(b) shows the temperature dependence of N =6 as the temperature is lowered, then it decreases
the wave vector for Jz/Jt = 0.7. The calculated to N =4. In this section it will be seen that this
curve does not "lock-in" at other commensurate behavior can readily be understood within the soliton
values. This is due to the fact that we have ignored theory.
higher-order umklapp terms. For example, the lock- Our starting point will again be the Landau expan-
in at q = 5 could, in principle, be accounted for by sion (4.5). This time, however, we chose qp =2m'
1
including tenth-order terms. Near Tct the wave vec- x (0, 0, 61 ) and keep the sixth-order umklapp terms.
tor assumes the asymptotic form Repeating all the steps leading to Eq. (4. 12), we find
the following free-energy functional
q
in-'( T Tct) . (4.22) 1
F dz cA ,
1 d@
5 +v(1+cos pP) p =6
which explains the very steep behavior of the q vs T 2 dz
curve, and the difficulty of finding numerical solu-
tions in this regime. (4. 24)
The soliton has a characteristic width where A ance $ now describe a spin-density wave
4J~
(4.23) S(r) = (A /~2) exp [i P(z) ] exp [2rri ( 6
z) ] (4.2S)
4tu,
and
Hence the width is large when J~ is large (Figs. 7 c = Jt
1
2J) (4.26)
and 9). We expect that our continuum approxima-
tion is best when 5 is large. In this light, it may be A4T
(4.27)
surprising that the calculation gives a meaningful 60( J1 4 JP)
result for Jz/Jt = 0.7, where 5 =2.8.
J3(J, +2J, )
J, +4J, (4.28)
0.5 jI I
(4.29)
I I I
I ) I
I I
)
fu
-5 I
I
I
I 5Z Again, we find soliton solutions
V. FINITE-TEMPERATURE EFFECTS.
PHASON INSTABILITIES
which has also been plotted in Fig. 6 (upper broken The excitations in the soliton lattice are the phasons
lines). At J~ = 0.55J1 and 0.6J1 the agreement is in complete analogy with the phonons in an atomic
very good (within 1'/0), whereas, when J2 is closer to lattice. The phason modes describe shifts 0(x,y, z) of
,1 J1, there is some discrepancy. This is due to the the soliton lattice in the z direction (Fig. 12}
insufficiency of our numerical procedure near T, . y (z) @0(z e(x, y, z)) (5.2}
The calculation explains the stability of the q = ,
1
d8 dg 0
Again, it is evident that the soliton gives a good dx dy dz
description. Figure 11 shows the commensurate
structure just below TC1. The small disagreement
with the numerical solution is due to the fact that we J &28tu
1 dr
&
dH
+ d8 (5.3)
pL dx dy
have ignored the coupling to higher harmonics by
truncating our Landau expansion.
In principle, it can be argued that because of the x{y)
higher-order terms any commensurate phase becomes 8 (x, y)
stable in a finite temperature interval. This is, in
fact, the argument used by Dzyaloshinsky. ' The
stepwise behavior can thus be understood as a conse-
quence of umklapp terms in the Landau expansion.
In Sec. V the effects of fluctuations will be con-
sidered, and it will be argued that the mean-field pic-
ture is qualitatively correct at nonzero temperatures.
tt l i tt tt i l tt alt l tt
'l Z-
2
t l
dd, 8d
p
fd d
dd
dx
d dd
dy
(5.4) +,Sm
b In,vr2+b +u'In,
b++
7r2
q (5 II)
Transforming to q space,
1 for q 0
8(x, y) = dqdq exp [i (qx+ qy) ] q The phason entropy thus gives a negative contribu-
2n.
tion to the domain-wall free energy. The commensu-
(5.5) rate phase is unstable when the quantity in the curly
brackets is negative. The CI transition takes place
the deformation energy can be expressed in terms of when the domain-wall energy is zero. This happens
the phason modes at a lower temperature than the one given by the
mean-field theory. For a given commensurate phase
JtA'8tu the variables in Eq. (5. 11) are all known functions of
Eg= dqdq (q2+q2) t)2 . (5.6)
277 p JI, J2, and T.
At first, let us consider the case p =4 to study the
The energy of a single phason mode is thus
stability of the q = 4 phase. Since we know all the
I
Eo+
L 2m ~ de dq~ ln 2,
q2+b
(5.9) TABLE I. Values of TCI for several J2/JI.
~here J2/JI Tc
2
cp 8
(5. 10)
2JI 07 5.4 3.64 2. 57
Replacing the integration area with a circle with ra- I 6 4. 77 3.36
dius n we find that the total free energy of the in-
2 8 7.38 5.24
commensurate phase relative to that of the com-
21 ISING MODEL WITH SOLITONS, PHASONS, AND. . . 5307
'See, for example, W. C. Koehler, in Magetic Properties o/' ' P. Bak, in Solitos ad Codesed MatteI Physics. edited by
Rare Earth Metals, edited by R. J. Elliott (Plenum, New A. R. Bishop and T. Schneider (Springer, New York, 1978).
York, 1972), p. 81. ' P. Fisher, B. Lebech, G. Meier, B. D. Rainford, and O.
~R. Comes, S. M. Shapiro, G. Shirane, A. F. Garito, and A. Vogt, J. Phys. C 11, 345 (1978).
J. Heeger, Phys. Rev. Lett. 35, 1518 (1975). ' J. Rossat Mignod, P. Burlet, J. Villain, H. Bartholin, Wang
~J. M. Hastings, J. P. Pouget, G. Shirane, A. J. Heeger, N. Tseng-Si, D. Florence, and O. Vogt, Phys. Rev. B 16, 440
D. Miro, and A. G. MacDiarmid, Phys. Rev. Lett. 39, (1977).
1484 (1977). ' J. von Boehm and P. Bak, Phys. Rev. Lett. 42, 122
4U. Enz, Physica (Utrecht) 26, 698 (1960). (1978).
R. J. Elliott, Phys. Rev. 124, 346 (1961). ' W. Selke, Z. Phys. B 29, 133 (1978); R. M. Hornreich, R.
6M. Habenschuss, C. Stassis, S. K. Sinha, H. W. Deckmann, Liebermann, H. G. Schuster, and W. Selke (unpublished).
and F. H. Spedding, Phys. Rev. B 10, 1021 (1974), and W. Selke and M. E. Fisher, Phys. Rev. B 20, 257 (1979);
references cited therein. Int. J. Magn. Magn. Mater. (to be published).
71.E. Dzyaloshinsky, Collective Properties of'Phvsical Svstets ~'P. Bak and J. von Boehm, Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 24, 429
(Academic, New York, 1974), p. 143. (1978); J. Appl. Phys. (to be published).
V. L. Pokrovsky, Solid State Commun. 26, 77 (1978). W. Selke and H. Schuster (unpublished).
9S. Aubry, in Solitos ad Codesed Matter Physics, edited H. J. Mikeska, J. Phys. C 11, L29 (1978); J. K. Kjems and
by A. R. Bishop and T. Schneider (Springer, New York, M. Steiner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 41, 1137 (1978).
1978). ~4P. G. de Gennes, Solid State Commun. 6, 163 (1968).
' and J. H. Van der Merwe, Proc. R. Soc. Lon-
F. C. Frank ~5R. L. Stratonovich, Sov. Phys. Dokl. 2, 416 (1958); J.
don Sect. A 198, 205, 216 (1949); 200, 125 (1949). Hubbard, Phys. Rev. Lett. 3, 77 (1959).
"B. Mandelbrot, FIactals: Fon, Chattge ad Ditesio D. Mukamel (unpublished).
(Freeman, San Francisco, 1977). V. L. Pokrovsky and A. L. Talapov, Phys. Rev. Lett. 42,
' W. L. McMillan, Phys. Rev. B 14, 1496 (1976); 16, 4655 65 (1979). For an excellent review, see J. Villain, in
(1977). Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute,
' M. Luban, D. Mukamel, and S. Shtrikman, Phys. Rev. B Geilo, Norway, April, 1979 (unpublished).
10, 360 (1974). 8P. Bak and H. Fukuyama, Phys. Rev. B (to be published).
' P. Bak and V. J. Emery, Phys. Rev. Lett. 36, 978 (1976).