Magnetization plateaus and phase diagrams of the Ising model on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice

The magnetization properties of a two-dimensional spin-1/2 Ising model on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice are studied within the effective-field theory (EFT) with correlations. The thermal behavior of the magnetizations is investigated in order to characterize the nature (the first- or second-order) of the phase transitions as well as to obtain the phase diagrams of the model. The internal energy, specific heat, entropy and free energy of the system are also examined numerically as a function of the temperature in order to confirm the stability of the phase transitions. The applied field dependence of the magnetizations is also examined to find the existence of the magnetization plateaus. For strong enough magnetic fields, several magnetization plateaus are observed, e.g., at 1/9, 1/8, 1/3 and 1/2 of the saturation. The phase diagrams of the model are constructed in two different planes, namely (h/|J|, |J′|/|J|) and (h/|J|, T/|J|) planes. It was found that the model exhibits first- and second-order phase transitions; hence tricitical point is also observed in additional to the zero-temperature critical point. Moreover the Néel order (N), collinear order (C) and ferromagnetic (F) phases are also found with appropriate values of the system parameters. The reentrant behavior is also obtained whenever model displays two Néel temperatures. These results are compared with some theoretical and experimental works and a good overall agreement has been obtained.