Competing magnetic phases on a kagomé staircase

The phase diagram of the spin-1 kagomé staircase Ni ₃V₂O₈ was investigated. The system was found to be attractive because its complex magnetic phase diagram can be understood on the basis of an embellished kagomé spin hamiltonian. The H-T phase diagram was described by a model of competing first and second neighbor interactions with smaller anisotropic terms. The results show that Ni ₃V₂O₈ provides an elegant example of order from subleading interactions in a highly frustrated system.