Magnetic Anisotropy Effect on Stabilizing Magnetization Plateaus of Kagome Strip Chain Heisenberg Antiferromagnets

Abstract: We investigate the anisotropic effect of magnetization plateaus in the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a kagome strip chain. The kagome strip chain Heisenberg model, composed of a hexagonal net of triangles forming five-site unit cells, exhibits four magnetization plateaus in the presence of an applied magnetic field. Using numerical density matrix renormalization group method, we find that the magnetization plateaus are stable against anisotropic interactions in the same direction of the applied magnetic field but the plateaus vanish with strong anisotropic interactions in other directions. We further analyze the stability of the magnetic plateaus with spin wave theory. The emergence of the lowest flat magnon band and its evolution with the anisotropic interactions can explain the robustness of magnetization plateaus, which is consistent with our numerical findings. In addition, upon tuning down the interaction strength for the two lower legs below a critical value, the kagome strip chain decouples into two spin chains, which can be used to determine the effective lattice structure in materials with strong distortions. Our results enhance the theoretical understanding of the anisotropic effect and the nature of magnetization plateaus in frustrated kagome lattice materials, which can contribute to the design and manipulation of kagome materials with tailored properties.