Nematic order in a simple-cubic lattice-spin model with full-ranged dipolar interactions

Unsolved problem of long-range interactions: dipolar spin-ice study

Long-range interactions derive various strange phenomena. As illustrated by cutoff simulations of water, increasing cutoff length does not improve the simulation result necessarily; on the contrary, it makes the result worse. In the extreme situation, the structure of water transforms into a layer structure. In this study, to explore the underlying mechanism of this phenomenon, we performed Monte Carlo simulations on dipolar spins arranged on a pyrochlore spin-ice lattice. Like the water case, the present dipolar spin system also showed cutoff-induced dipole ordering and layer formation. The width of the layers depended on the cutoff length; and longer cutoff length led to a broader layer. These features are certainly consistent with the previous water case. This indicates that layer formation is the general behavior of dipolar systems whose interactions are truncated within a finite distance. The result is important for future exploration of the relationship between long-range interactions and resulting structures. In addition, it emphasizes the necessity of rigorous treatment of long-range interactions because increasing the cutoff length prevents convergence and provides an entirely different result from the rigorous Ewald calculation.

Phase diagram of a three-dimensional dipolar Ising model with textured Ising axes

We study from tempered Monte Carlo simulations the magnetic phase diagram of a textured dipolar Ising model on a face centered cubic lattice. The Ising coupling of the model follow the dipole-dipole interaction. The Ising axes are distributed with a uniaxial symmetry along the [Formula: see text] direction with a Gaussian probability density of the polar angles. This distribution provides a quenched disorder realization of the dipolar Ising model making a continuous link between the parallel axes dipoles and the random axes dipole models. As expected the phase diagram presents three distinctive phases: paramagnetic, ferromagnetic and spin-glass. A quasi long range ferromagnetic and a reentrant spin-glass phases are obtained in the vicinity of the ferromagnetic spin-glass line. This model provides a way to predict the magnetic phases of magnetic nanoparticles supracrystals in terms of the texturation of the easy axes distribution in the strong anisotropy limit.