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Ground state transitions in Tetris artificial spin ice

ORAL

Abstract

Artificial spin ice systems comprised of interacting nanomagnets were introduced to mimic the frustration in naturally occurring spin ice materials [1]. Decimating the original square ice [1] has yielded a range of vertex-frustrated geometries, e.g., Tetris [2], Shatki [3]. We have studied the dynamics of Tetris ice, which can be decomposed into so-called staircase and backbone bands. We performed PEEM-XMCD experiments at various temperatures to understand the kinetics of Tetris. By analyzing the flipping rates, we previously showed that the backbones are stable against temperature, while the staircases are highly susceptible to thermal fluctuations. We have now studied the dynamics of Tetris by analyzing the transitions between different spin configurations and correlations both within and across staircases and backbones. We show that the low temperature dynamics of the system is associated with certain transitions within a low-energy manifold of collective states.
1. Wang et al., Nature 439, 303 (2006)
2. Gilbert et al., Nat. Phys. 12, 162 (2016)
3. Lao et al., Nat. Phys. 14, 723 (2018)

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Presenters

  • Hilal Saglam

    Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Applied Physics, Yale University, Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, Yale University

Authors

  • Hilal Saglam

    Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Applied Physics, Yale University, Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, Yale University

  • Xiaoyu Zhang

    Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, Yale University

  • Ayhan Duzgun

    Los Alamos National Laboratory, Theoretical Division and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Nicholas Bingham

    Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, Yale University

  • Yuyang Lao

    Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Aikaterini Kargioti

    Department of Applied Physics, Yale University

  • Joseph N Sklenar

    Wayne State University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University, Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University

  • Ian J Gilbert

    Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Cristiano Nisoli

    Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Lab, Los Alamos Natl Lab, Theoretical Division and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Peter Schiffer

    Yale University, Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, Department of Applied Physics and Department of Physics, Yale University