Magnetization plateau in the frustrated spin ladder

The magnetization process of the S = 1/2 antiferromagnetic spin ladder at T = 0 is studied by the exact diagonalization of finite clusters and size scaling analyses. It is found that a magnetization plateau appears at half the saturation value (m = 1/2) in the presence of a sufficiently large next-nearest-neighbor exchange interaction to yield the frustration, when the rung coupling is larger than the leg one. The phase diagram at m = 1/2 is given by the analysis based on the conformal invariance. The magnetization curves are also presented in several cases.