Realizing Colloidal Artificial Ice on Arrays of Optical Traps

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a colloidal artificial ice system on optical traps, showing ice rule adherence, ordered ground states, and phase transitions controllable by trap parameters, with potential for experimental realization.

Contribution

It introduces a colloidal implementation of artificial ice on optical trap arrays, highlighting the conditions for ice rule ordering and phase transitions in such systems.

Findings

Ice rule obeyance in colloidal systems demonstrated

Ordered ground states emerge at strong interactions

Transition observable by varying trap barrier strength

Abstract

We demonstrate how a colloidal version of artificial ice can be realized on optical trap lattices. Using numerical simulations, we show that this system obeys the ice rules and that for strong colloid-colloid interactions, an ordered ground state appears. We show that the ice rule ordering can occur for systems with as few as twenty-four traps and that the ordering transition can be observed at constant temperature by varying the barrier strength of the traps.