Phase diagram of a frustrated Heisenberg model: From disorder to order and back again

We study the effects of bond and site disorder in the classical J(1)-J(2) Heisenberg model on a square lattice in the order-by-disorder frustrated regime 2J(2) > vertical bar J(1)vertical bar. Combining symmetry arguments, numerical energy minimization, and large-scale Monte Carlo simulations, we establish that the finite-temperature Ising-type transition of the clean system is destroyed in the presence of any finite concentration of impurities. We explain this finding via a random-field mechanism which generically emerges in systems where disorder locally breaks the same real-space symmetry spontaneously globally broken by the associated order parameter. We also determine that the phase replacing the clean one is a paramagnet polarized in the nematic glass order with nontrivial magnetic response. This is because disorder also induces noncollinear spin-vortex-crystal order and produces a conjugated transverse dipolar random field. As a result of these many competing effects, the associated magnetic susceptibilities are nonmonotonic functions of the temperature. As a further application of our methods, we show the generation of random axes in other frustrated magnets with broken SU(2) symmetry. We also discuss the generality of our findings and their relevance to experiments.

Automated summary

The study shows that the finite-temperature Ising-type transition of the clean system is destroyed in the presence of any finite concentration of impurities, being replaced by a paramagnet with nematic glass order. This transition is attributed to disorder inducing noncollinear spin-vortex-crystal order and producing a conjugated transverse dipolar random field.