Avalanches from the ground state in artificial square ice

ORAL

Abstract

Avalanches are phenomena in which there is a cascade-like transition between two states, and are present in many material systems. Generally, avalanches are pinned at defects. These defects, however, are difficult to control, and thus the study of the avalanche process is rather difficult. In this work, we utilize the customizable nature of artificial spin ice to examine avalanche processes under well-controlled circumstances. Starting with the magnetic ground state of artificial square ice, magnetic force microscopy was performed at remanence after the islands were exposed to increasing magnetic fields. The results are used to study the avalanche processes, and effects of finite system size, as well as the relevant scaling of the avalanche process.

*This work is funded by the DOE (Yale) and NSF (Minnesota).

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Presenters

  • Nicholas Bingham

    • Department of Applied Physics, Yale University
    • Yale University

Authors

  • Nicholas Bingham

    • Department of Applied Physics, Yale University
    • Yale University

  • Jungsik Park

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

  • Alejandro Simon

    • Department of Applied Physics, Yale University

  • William Zhu

    • Department of Applied Physics, Yale University

  • Justin Watts

    • School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota
    • University of Minnesota

  • Xiaoyu Zhang

    • Department of Applied Physics, Yale University
    • Yale University

  • Joseph Batley

    • School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota
    • University of Minnesota

  • Karin Andrea Dahmen

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

  • Chris Leighton

    • University of Minnesota
    • Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota

  • Peter Schiffer

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