No Arabic abstract
Recently, significant interest has emerged in fabricated systems that mimic the behavior of geometrically-frustrated materials. We present the full realization of such an artificial spin ice system on a two-dimensional kagome lattice and demonstrate rigid adherence to the local ice rule by directly counting individual pseudo-spins. The resulting spin configurations show not only local ice rules and long-range disorder, but also correlations consistent with spin ice Monte Carlo calculations. Our results suggest that dipolar corrections are significant in this system, as in pyrochlore spin ice, and they open a door to further studies of frustration in general.
We investigate spin dynamics of artificial spin ice (ASI) where topological defects confine magnon modes in Ni$_{81}$Fe$_{19}$ nanomagnets arranged on an interconnected kagome lattice. Brillouin light scattering microscopy performed on magnetically disordered states exhibit a series of magnon resonances which depend on topological defect configurations detected by magnetic force microscopy. Nanomagnets on a Dirac string and between a monopole-antimonopole pair show pronounced modifications in magnon frequencies both in experiments and simulations. Our work is key for the creation and annihilation of Dirac strings via microwave assisted switching and reprogrammable magnonics based on ASIs.
The study of magnetic correlations in dipolar-coupled nanomagnet systems with synchrotron x-ray scattering provides a means to uncover emergent phenomena and exotic phases, in particular in systems with thermally active magnetic moments. From the diffuse signal of soft x-ray resonant magnetic scattering, we have measured magnetic correlations in a highly dynamic artificial kagome spin ice with sub-70-nm Permalloy nanomagnets. On comparing experimental scattering patterns with Monte Carlo simulations based on a needle-dipole model, we conclude that kagome ice I phase correlations exist in our experimental system even in the presence of moment fluctuations, which is analogous to bulk spin ice and spin liquid behavior. In addition, we describe the emergence of quasi-pinch-points in the magnetic diffuse scattering in the kagome ice I phase. These quasi-pinch-points bear similarities to the fully developed pinch points with singularities of a magnetic Coulomb phase, and continually evolve into the latter on lowering the temperature. The possibility to measure magnetic diffuse scattering with soft x rays opens the way to study magnetic correlations in a variety of nanomagnetic systems.
Geometrical frustration in magnetic materials often gives rise to exotic, low-temperature states of matter, like the ones observed in spin ices. Here we report the imaging of the magnetic states of a thermally-active artificial magnetic ice that reveal the fingerprints of a spin fragmentation process. This fragmentation corresponds to a splitting of the magnetic degree of freedom into two channels and is evidenced in both real and reciprocal space. Furthermore, the internal organization of both channels is interpreted within the framework of a hybrid spin-charge model that directly emerges from the parent spin model of the kagome dipolar spin ice. Our experimental and theoretical results provide insights into the physics of frustrated magnets and deepen our understanding of emergent fields through the use of tailor-made magnetism.
We report the dependence of the magnetization dynamics in a square artificial spin-ice lattice on the in-plane magnetic field angle. Using two complementary measurement techniques - broadband ferromagnetic resonance and micro-focused Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy - we systematically study the evolution of the lattice dynamics, both for a coherent radiofrequency excitation and an incoherent thermal excitation of spin dynamics. We observe a splitting of modes facilitated by inter-element interactions that can be controlled by the external field angle and magnitude. Detailed time-dependent micromagnetic simulations reveal that the split modes are localized in different regions of the square network. This observation suggests that it is possible to disentangle modes with different spatial profiles by tuning the external field configuration.
We present results of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) experiments and micromagnetic simulations for a distorted, 2D Kagome artificial spin ice. The distorted structure is created by continuously modulating the 2D primitive lattice translation vectors of a periodic honeycomb lattice, according to an aperiodic Fibonacci sequence used to generate 1D quasicrystals. Experimental data and micromagnetic simulations show the Fibonacci distortion causes broadening and splitting of FMR modes into multiple branches, which accompany the increasing number of segment lengths and orientations that develop with increasing distortion. When the applied field is increased in the opposite direction to the net magnetization of a segment, spin wave modes appear, disappear or suddenly shift, to signal segment magnetization reversal events. These results show the complex behavior of reversal events, as well as well-defined frequencies and frequency-field slopes of FMR modes, can be precisely tuned by varying the severity of the aperiodic lattice distortion. This type of distorted structure could therefore provide a new tool for the design of complicated magnonic systems.