Type: Article
Publication Date: 1997-12-22
Citations: 157
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.79.5126
Magnetization processes of spin-1/2 Heisenberg ladders are studied using strong-coupling expansions, numerical diagonalization of finite systems and a bosonization approach. We find that the magnetization exhibits plateaux as a function of the applied field at certain rational fractions of the saturation value. Our main focus are ladders with 3 legs where plateaux with magnetization one third of the saturation value are shown to exist.