Engineering Artificial Spin Ice with a Frustrated Lattice of Y-shaped Non-Ising Moments

Artificial spin ice (ASI) systems composed of arrays of frustrated interacting nanomagnets offer a valuable platform for designing and exploring collective magnetic phenomena. However, most ASI geometries explored to date employ stadium-shaped magnetic islands with Ising-like character, i.e., the island moments are binary. We report the study of an artificial spin system based on a new type of artificial moment: a three-fold symmetric Y-shape island. The resulting non-binary nanomagnetic building block effectively behaves as a multipolar magnetic element, giving rise to behavior akin to a Potts-like 6-state clock model. These new magnetic objects enable the exploration of a variety of novel magnetic phases, opening a path to new collective phenomena and kinetics beyond the traditional ASI binary moment systems.