Melting artificial spin ice

• Artificial spin ice arrays of micromagnetic islands are a means of engineering additional energy scales and frustration into magnetic materials. Here we demonstrate a magnetic phase transition in an artificial square spin ice and use the symmetry of the lattice to verify the presence of excitations far below the ordering temperature. We do this by measuring the temperature dependent magnetisation in different principal directions and comparing with simulations of idealised statistical mechanical models. Our results confirm a dynamical pre-melting of the artificial spin ice structure at a temperature well below the intrinsic ordering temperature of the island material. We thus create a spin ice array that has real thermal dynamics of the artificial spins over an extended temperature range.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Annan fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Other Physics Topics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

artificial spin ice

ising model

magnetization dynamics

Physics

Fysik

Materiefysik

Physics of Matter

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)