Enhanced magnetoelectric effect near a field-driven zero-temperature quantum phase transition of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg-Ising ladder.

Abstract

The magnetoelectric effect of a spin-1/2 Heisenberg-Ising ladder in the presence of external electric and magnetic fields is rigorously examined by taking into account the Katsura-Nagaosa-Balatsky mechanism. It is shown that an applied electric field may control the quantum phase transition between a Néel (stripy) ordered phase and a disordered paramagnetic phase. The staggered magnetization vanishes according to a power law with an Ising-type critical exponent 1/8, the electric polarization exhibits a weak singularity, and the dielectric susceptibility shows a logarithmic divergence at this particular quantum phase transition. The external electric field may alternatively invoke a discontinuous phase transition accompanied with abrupt jumps of the dielectric polarization and susceptibility on the assumption that the external magnetic field becomes nonzero.