Steplike magnetization of spin chains in a triangular lattice: Monte Carlo simulations

A two-dimensional Ising-like model for a triangular spin-chain lattice, where each spin-chain is treated as a rigid giant spin, is proposed to investigate the magnetization of a triangular spin-chain lattice by Monte Carlo simulation. The simulations show the steplike evolution of the magnetization at low temperature against an external magnetic field, namely two steps above 100.3em0exK and four steps below 100.3em0exK, in quantitative agreement with experiments on a Ca₃Co₂O₆ compound. It is argued that the interchain interaction and magnetic inhomogeneity of the lattice are two important ingredients to induce the intriguing steplike feature of the magnetization below 100.3em0exK.