String Phase in an Artificial Spin Ice

Xiaoyu Zhang; Ayhan Duzgun; Yuyang Lao; Shayaan Subzwari; Nicholas S. Bingham; Joseph Sklenar; Hilal Saglam; Justin Ramberger; Joseph T. Batley; Justin D. Watts; Daniel Bromley; Rajesh V. Chopdekar; Liam O’Brien; Chris Leighton; Cristiano Nisoli; Peter Schiffer

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-26734-6

String Phase in an Artificial Spin Ice

Xiaoyu Zhang, Ayhan Duzgun, Yuyang Lao, Shayaan Subzwari, Nicholas S. Bingham, Joseph Sklenar, Hilal Saglam, Justin Ramberger, Joseph T. Batley, Justin D. Watts, Daniel Bromley, Rajesh V. Chopdekar, Liam O’Brien, Chris Leighton, Cristiano Nisoli, Peter Schiffer

Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

One-dimensional strings of local excitations are a fascinating feature of the physical behavior of strongly correlated topological quantum matter. Here we study strings of local excitations in a classical system of interacting nanomagnets, the Santa Fe Ice geometry of artificial spin ice. We measured the moment configuration of the nanomagnets, both after annealing near the ferromagnetic Curie point and in a thermally dynamic state. While the Santa Fe Ice lattice structure is complex, we demonstrate that its disordered magnetic state is naturally described within a framework of emergent strings. We show experimentally that the string length follows a simple Boltzmann distribution with an energy scale that is associated with the system’s magnetic interactions and is consistent with theoretical predictions. The results demonstrate that string descriptions and associated topological characteristics are not unique to quantum models but can also provide a simplifying description of complex classical systems with non-trivial frustration.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	6514
Journal	Nature communications
Volume	12
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26734-6
State	Published - Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We are grateful to I-A. Chioar for helpful discussions. Work at Yale University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division under Grant No. DE-SC0010778 and Grant No. DE-SC0020162. This research used resources of the Advanced Light Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Work at the University of Minnesota was funded by NSF through Grant Nos. DMR-1807124 and DMR-2103711. Work at the University of Liverpool was supported by the UK Royal Society, Grant No. RGS\R2\180208. Work at Los Alamos National Laboratory was carried out under the auspices of the US Department of Energy through Los Alamos National Laboratory, operated by Triad National Security, LLC (Contract No. 892333218NCA000001) and financed by DoE LDRD.

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© 2021, The Author(s).

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title = "String Phase in an Artificial Spin Ice",

abstract = "One-dimensional strings of local excitations are a fascinating feature of the physical behavior of strongly correlated topological quantum matter. Here we study strings of local excitations in a classical system of interacting nanomagnets, the Santa Fe Ice geometry of artificial spin ice. We measured the moment configuration of the nanomagnets, both after annealing near the ferromagnetic Curie point and in a thermally dynamic state. While the Santa Fe Ice lattice structure is complex, we demonstrate that its disordered magnetic state is naturally described within a framework of emergent strings. We show experimentally that the string length follows a simple Boltzmann distribution with an energy scale that is associated with the system{\textquoteright}s magnetic interactions and is consistent with theoretical predictions. The results demonstrate that string descriptions and associated topological characteristics are not unique to quantum models but can also provide a simplifying description of complex classical systems with non-trivial frustration.",

author = "Xiaoyu Zhang and Ayhan Duzgun and Yuyang Lao and Shayaan Subzwari and Bingham, {Nicholas S.} and Joseph Sklenar and Hilal Saglam and Justin Ramberger and Batley, {Joseph T.} and Watts, {Justin D.} and Daniel Bromley and Chopdekar, {Rajesh V.} and Liam O{\textquoteright}Brien and Chris Leighton and Cristiano Nisoli and Peter Schiffer",

note = "Funding Information: We are grateful to I-A. Chioar for helpful discussions. Work at Yale University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division under Grant No. DE-SC0010778 and Grant No. DE-SC0020162. This research used resources of the Advanced Light Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Work at the University of Minnesota was funded by NSF through Grant Nos. DMR-1807124 and DMR-2103711. Work at the University of Liverpool was supported by the UK Royal Society, Grant No. RGS\R2\180208. Work at Los Alamos National Laboratory was carried out under the auspices of the US Department of Energy through Los Alamos National Laboratory, operated by Triad National Security, LLC (Contract No. 892333218NCA000001) and financed by DoE LDRD. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s).",

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AU - Sklenar, Joseph

AU - Saglam, Hilal

AU - Ramberger, Justin

AU - Batley, Joseph T.

AU - Watts, Justin D.

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AU - Chopdekar, Rajesh V.

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AU - Nisoli, Cristiano

AU - Schiffer, Peter

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N2 - One-dimensional strings of local excitations are a fascinating feature of the physical behavior of strongly correlated topological quantum matter. Here we study strings of local excitations in a classical system of interacting nanomagnets, the Santa Fe Ice geometry of artificial spin ice. We measured the moment configuration of the nanomagnets, both after annealing near the ferromagnetic Curie point and in a thermally dynamic state. While the Santa Fe Ice lattice structure is complex, we demonstrate that its disordered magnetic state is naturally described within a framework of emergent strings. We show experimentally that the string length follows a simple Boltzmann distribution with an energy scale that is associated with the system’s magnetic interactions and is consistent with theoretical predictions. The results demonstrate that string descriptions and associated topological characteristics are not unique to quantum models but can also provide a simplifying description of complex classical systems with non-trivial frustration.

AB - One-dimensional strings of local excitations are a fascinating feature of the physical behavior of strongly correlated topological quantum matter. Here we study strings of local excitations in a classical system of interacting nanomagnets, the Santa Fe Ice geometry of artificial spin ice. We measured the moment configuration of the nanomagnets, both after annealing near the ferromagnetic Curie point and in a thermally dynamic state. While the Santa Fe Ice lattice structure is complex, we demonstrate that its disordered magnetic state is naturally described within a framework of emergent strings. We show experimentally that the string length follows a simple Boltzmann distribution with an energy scale that is associated with the system’s magnetic interactions and is consistent with theoretical predictions. The results demonstrate that string descriptions and associated topological characteristics are not unique to quantum models but can also provide a simplifying description of complex classical systems with non-trivial frustration.

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String Phase in an Artificial Spin Ice

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