Magnetic behavior of a mixed Ising 3/2 and 5/2 spin model.

We perform Monte Carlo simulations in order to study the magnetic properties of the mixed spin-S = ± 3/2, ± 1/2 and spin-σ = ± 5/2, ± 3/2, ± 1/2 Ising model. The spins are alternated on a square lattice such that S and σ are nearest neighbors. We found that when the Hamiltonian includes antiferromagnetic interactions between the S and σ spins, ferromagnetic interactions between the spins S, and a crystal field, the system presents compensation temperatures in a certain range of the parameters. The compensation temperatures are temperatures below the critical point where the total magnetization is zero, and they have important technological applications. We calculate the finite-temperature phase diagrams of the system. We found that the existence of compensation temperatures depends on the strength of the ferromagnetic interaction between the S spins.