Magnetically Charged Superdomain Walls In Square Artificial Spin Ice

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the spontaneous formation of magnetically charged superdomain walls in square artificial spin ice nanostructures, revealing hierarchical magnetic structures through resonant soft x-ray scattering.

Contribution

It provides direct experimental evidence of charged superdomain walls and introduces a new method to detect complex magnetic textures in artificial spin ice.

Findings

Charged superdomain walls extend over tens of lattice sites.

Internal structure varies with applied magnetic field.

Resonant soft x-ray scattering reveals hierarchical magnetic structures.

Abstract

We report direct evidence that magnetically charged superdomain walls form spontaneously in two dimensional square artificial spin ice nanostructures in response to external magnetic fields. These extended magnetic defects were revealed by the development of internal structure, which varies as a function of applied magnetic field, within the Bragg peaks of resonant soft x-ray magnetic scattering patterns. Magnetically charged superdomain walls extend over tens of lattice sites and do not necessarily align with the applied field. Our results illustrate a novel approach to detect hierarchical magnetic structures within spin textures.