The antiferromagnetic Ising model on the swedenborgite lattice

Abstract

Geometrical frustration in spin systems often results in a large number of degenerate ground states. In this work we study the antiferromagnetic Ising model on the three dimensional swedenborgite lattice which is a specific stacking of Kagomé and triangular layers. The model contains two exchange couplings, one within the Kagomé layer, another one in between Kagomé and triangular layers. We determine the phase diagram with and without easy axis magnetic field and calculate the ground state degeneracy explicitly in terms of the residual entropy. At zero field we find two different ground state manifolds separated by a first order transition at T = 0 and equal exchange couplings. We also determine the T = 0 phase diagram in a magnetic field and find a rich phase diagram with both degenerate and non-degenerate phases depending on the field strength and out-of-plane coupling.

7 pages, 8 figures