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)

*This project was funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering Division under Grant No. DE-SC0010778 and DE-SC0020162.

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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