No Arabic abstract
We investigate experimentally magnetic frustration effects in thermally active artificial kagome spin ice. Starting from a paramagnetic state, the system is cooled down below the Curie temperature of the constituent material. The resulting magnetic configurations show that our arrays are locally brought into the so-called spin ice 2 phase, predicted by at-equilibrium Monte Carlo simulations and characterized by a magnetic charge crystal embedded in a disordered kagome spin lattice. However, by studying our arrays on a larger scale, we find unambiguous signature of an out-of-equilibrium physics. Comparing our findings with numerical simulations, we interpret the efficiency of our thermalization procedure in terms of kinetic pathways that the system follows upon cooling and which drive the arrays into degenerate low-energy manifolds that are hardly accessible otherwise.
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.
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.
The properties of natural and artificial assemblies of interacting elements, ranging from Quarks to Galaxies, are at the heart of Physics. The collective response and dynamics of such assemblies are dictated by the intrinsic dynamical properties of the building blocks, the nature of their interactions and topological constraints. Here we report on the relaxation dynamics of the magnetization of artificial assemblies of mesoscopic spins. In our model nano-magnetic system - square artificial spin ice - we are able to control the geometrical arrangement and interaction strength between the magnetically interacting building blocks by means of nano-lithography. Using time resolved magnetometry we show that the relaxation process can be described using the Kohlrausch law and that the extracted temperature dependent relaxation times of the assemblies follow the Vogel-Fulcher law. The results provide insight into the relaxation dynamics of mesoscopic nano-magnetic model systems, with adjustable energy and time scales, and demonstrates that these can serve as an ideal playground for the studies of collective dynamics and relaxations.
Artificial spin ices (ASIs) are interacting arrays of lithographically-defined nanomagnets in which novel frustrated magnetic phases can be intentionally designed. A key emergent description of fundamental excitations in ASIs is that of magnetic monopoles -- mobile quasiparticles that carry an effective magnetic charge. Here we demonstrate that the archetypal square ASI lattice can host, in specific regions of its magnetic phase diagram, high-density plasma-like regimes of mobile magnetic monopoles. By passively listening to spontaneous monopole noise in thermal equilibrium, we reveal their intrinsic dynamics and show that monopole kinetics are minimally correlated (that is, most diffusive) in the plasma phase. These results open the door to on-demand monopole regimes having field-tunable densities and dynamic properties, thereby providing a new paradigm for probing the physics of effective magnetic charges in synthetic matter.
Artificial spin ice systems have seen burgeoning interest due to their intriguing physics and potential applications in reprogrammable memory, logic and magnonics. In-depth comparisons of distinct artificial spin systems are crucial to advancing the field and vital work has been done on characteristic behaviours of artificial spin ices arranged on different geometric lattices. Integration of artificial spin ice with functional magnonics is a relatively recent research direction, with a host of promising early results. As the field progresses, studies examining the effects of lattice geometry on the magnonic response are increasingly significant. While studies have investigated the effects of different lattice tilings such as square and kagome (honeycomb), little comparison exists between systems comprising continuously-connected nanostructures, where spin-waves propagate through the system via exchange interaction, and systems with nanobars disconnected at vertices where spin-waves are transferred via stray dipolar-field. Here, we perform a Brillouin light scattering study of the magnonic response in two kagome artificial spin ices, a continuously-connected system and a disconnected system with vertex gaps. We observe distinctly different high-frequency dynamics and characteristic magnetization reversal regimes between the systems, with key distinctions in system microstate during reversal, internal field profiles and spin-wave mode quantization numbers. These observations are pertinent for the fundamental understanding of artificial spin systems and the design and engineering of such systems for functional magnonic applications.