Magnetic properties of frustrated spin ladder

The magnetic properties of the antiferromagnetic spin ladder with the next-nearest neighbor interaction, particularly under external field, are investigated by the exact diagonalization of the finite clusters and size scaling techniques. It is found that there exist two phases, the rung-dimer and rung-triplet phases, not only in the nonmagnetic ground state but also magnetized one, where the phase boundary has a small magnetization dependence. Only in the former phase, the magnetization curve is revealed to have a possible plateau at half the saturation moment, with a sufficient frustration. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021- 8979(00)22608-X].