Magnetic order and energy-scale hierarchy in artificial spin ice

Abstract

In order to explain and predict the properties of many physical systems, it is essential to understand the interplay of different energy-scales. Here we present investigations of the magnetic order in thermalised artificial spin ice structures, with different activation energies of the interacting Ising-like elements. We image the thermally equilibrated magnetic states of the nano-structures using synchrotron-based magnetic microscopy. By comparing results obtained from structures with one or two different activation energies, we demonstrate a clear impact on the resulting magnetic order. The differences are obtained by the analysis of the magnetic spin structure factors, in which the role of the activation energies is manifested by distinct short-range order. This demonstrates that artificial spin systems can serve as model systems, allowing the definition of energy-scales by geometrical design and providing the backdrop for understanding their interplay.

8 pages, 5 figures (+ supplementary 6 pages, 4 figures)

References in corpus (6)

• Artificial "spin ice" in a geometrically frustrated lattice of nanoscale ferromagnetic islands
• Extensive degeneracy, Coulomb phase and magnetic monopoles in an artificial realization of the square ice model
• Fragmentation of magnetism in artificial kagome dipolar spin ice
• The importance of the weak: Interaction modifiers in artificial spin ices
• Topological frustration of artificial spin ice
• Magnetic diffuse scattering in artificial kagome spin ice

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Proposal to recover an extensive ground state degeneracy in a two-dimensional square array of nanomagnets
• Control of spin dynamics in artificial honeycomb spin-ice-based nanodisks
• Multiple energy-scales in vertex-frustrated mesospin systems
• Polymerization in magnetic metamaterials
• Gauge-Free Duality in Pure Square Spin Ice: Topological Currents and Monopoles
• Magnetic texture control in ion-implanted metamaterials
• The dipolar Aleppo lattice: Ground state ordering and ergodic dynamics in the absence of vertex frustration
• Co-existing magnetization reversal mechanisms in shakti spin ice systems