The nature of phase transition in the ANNNI model with alternating intralayer interactions

Abstract We consider an extended 3-d axial next-nearest-neighbor Ising model, which is composed of two kinds of alternately stacked ferromagnetic layers with different intralayer interactions. Monte Carlo simulation is performed on L 3 simple cubic lattice ( L =20–80). Since a minimum of the fourth-order energy cumulant( V L ), which corresponds to phase transition to partially disordered phase, reaches the value very close to 2 3 as L →∞, we conclude that this phase transition is second order. From the finite-size scaling analysis of V L and specific heat, we estimate the critical exponents.