Plaquette Singlet Transition, Magnetic Barocaloric Effect, and Spin Supersolidity in the Shastry-Sutherland Model

Abstract

Inspired by recent experimental measurements [Guo \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett.~\textbf{124}, 206602 (2020); Jim\'enez \textit{et al.}, Nature \textbf{592}, 370 (2021)] on frustrated quantum magnet SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$ under combined pressure and magnetic fields, we study the related spin-$1/2$ Shastry-Sutherland (SS) model using state-of-the-art tensor network methods. By calculating thermodynamics, correlations and susceptibilities, we find, in zero magnetic field, not only a line of first-order plaquette-singlet (PS) to dimer-singlet phase transition ending with a critical point, but also signatures of the ordered PS transition with its critical endpoint terminating on this first-order line. Moreover, we uncover prominent magnetic barocaloric responses, a novel type of quantum correlation induced cooling effect, in the strongly fluctuating supercritical regime. Under finite fields, we identify a quantum phase transition from the PS phase to the spin supersolid phase that breaks simultaneously lattice translational and spin rotational symmetries. The present findings on the SS model are accessible in current experiments and would shed new light on exotic critical and supercritical phenomena in archetypal frustrated quantum magnets.