Comparing artificial frustrated magnets: tuning symmetry in nanomagnet arrays

TL;DR

This study investigates how the geometry and symmetry of nanomagnet arrays influence their magnetic frustration and energy minimization, revealing that local symmetry plays a crucial role over lattice topology.

Contribution

It demonstrates that local interaction symmetry significantly affects frustration and energy minimization in nanomagnet arrays, beyond the effects of overall lattice topology.

Findings

Hexagonal lattices achieve the most energy minimization.

Pair-wise correlations differ between hexagonal and brickwork lattices.

Local symmetry impacts frustration accommodation more than lattice topology.

Abstract

We study the impact of geometry on magnetostatically frustrated single-domain nanomagnet arrays. We examine square and hexagonal lattice arrays, as well as a brickwork geometry that combines the anisotropy of the square lattice and the topology of the hexagonal lattice. We find that the more highly frustrated hexagonal lattice allows for the most thorough minimization of the magnetostatic energy, and that the pair-wise correlations between moments differ qualitatively between hexagonal and brickwork lattices, although they share the same lattice topology. The results indicate that the symmetry of local interaction is more important than overall lattice topology in the accommodation of frustrated interactions.