Temperature-dependent pitch and phase diagram for incommensurate XY spins in a slab geometry

Strain-engineered Heisenberg antiferromagnets recently have been produced by controlling the layer thickness of MnSe/ZnTe superlattices. Neutron-scattering studies reveal a spiral that tends to untwist with increasing temperature. To simulate this system, we employ an XY model with nearest- and second-nearest neighbor antiferromagnetic interactions. The bulk mean-field phase diagram has four possible phases, for the full range of the exchange constants. Monte Carlo calculations are performed for a slab geometry, using an algorithm that allows the system to choose incommensurate boundary conditions. The phase diagram is constructed by monitoring the spiral pitch as a function of temperature for a range of exchange constants. For appropriate exchange constants, good agreement is obtained with experiment. From the mean-field phase diagram it appears that strain engineering an NaCl structure in a superlattice configuration might produce a type of spiral phase, and an associated antiferromagnetic-to-spiral phase transition. © 1996 The American Physical Society.