Antiferromagnetic metal and mott transition on Shastry-Sutherland lattice

Abstract

The Shastry-Sutherland lattice, one of the simplest systems with geometrical frustration, which has an exact eigenstate by putting singlets on diagonal bonds, can be realized in a group of layered compounds and raises both theoretical and experimental interest. Most of the previous studies on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice are focusing on the Heisenberg model. Here we opt for the Hubbard model to calculate phase diagrams over a wide range of interaction parameters, and show the competing effects of interaction, frustration and temperature. At low temperature, frustration is shown to favor a paramagnetic metallic ground state, while interaction drives the system to an antiferromagnetic insulator phase. Between these two phases, there are an antiferromagnetic metal phase and a paramagnetic insulator phase (which should consist of a small plaquette phase and a dimer phase) resulting from the competition of the frustration and the interaction. Our results may shed light on more exhaustive studies about quantum phase transitions in geometrically frustrated systems.