Phase Transitions in Confined Antiferromagnets

Confinement effects on the phase transitions in antiferromagnets are studied as a function of the surface coupling v and the surface field h for bcc(110) films. Unusual topologies for the phase diagram are attained for particular combinations of v and h. It is shown that some of the characteristics of the finite-temperature behavior of the system are driven by its low-temperature properties and consequently can be explained in terms of a ground-state analysis. Cluster variation free energies are used for the investigation of the finite temperature behavior.