Modal frustration and periodicity breaking in artificial spin ice

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel artificial spin ice lattice with coupled nanomagnets that exhibits unique magnetic behaviors and energy state distributions, enabling advanced control for potential logic applications.

Contribution

It presents a new ASI design with coupled nanomagnets, demonstrating tunable Ising and non-Ising behaviors and complex energy landscapes beyond traditional models.

Findings

Demonstrated magnetic switching with uni- or bimodal state distributions

Generated diverse energy states including Ising and Landau states

Controlled energy distribution via incident angle of applied magnetic field

Abstract

Here an artificial spin ice (ASI) lattice is introduced that exhibits unique Ising and non-Ising behavior under specific field switching protocols because of the inclusion of coupled nanomagnets into the unit cell. In the Ising regime, a magnetic switching mechanism that generates a uni- or bimodal distribution of states dependent on the alignment of the field is demonstrated with respect to the lattice unit cell. In addition, a method for generating a plethora of randomly distributed energy states across the lattice, consisting of Ising and Landau states, is investigated through magnetic force microscopy and micromagnetic modeling. We demonstrate that the dispersed energy distribution across the lattice is a result of the intrinsic design and can be finely tuned through control of the incident angle of a critical field. The present manuscript explores a complex frustrated environment beyond the 16-vertex Ising model for the development of novel logic-based technologies.