Magnetic Polaron Imaged for the First Time, Artificial Magnetic Material Offers Remarkable Possibilities

Artificial spin ice systems are metamaterials that consist of lithographically patterned nanomagnets in an ordered two-dimensional geometry. The individual magnetic building blocks of a spin ice lattice interact with each other via dipolar magnetic fields.

Researchers used material design as a tool to create a new artificial spin ice, the dipolar dice lattice.

‘Designing the correct two-dimensional lattice geometry made it possible to create and observe the decay of magnetic polarons in real-time,’ says postdoctoral researcher Alan Farhan from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA).

‘We introduced the dipolar dice lattice because it offers a high degree of frustration, meaning that competing magnetic interactions cannot be satisfied simultaneously. Like all systems in nature, the dipolar dice lattice aims to relax and settle into a low-energy state. As a result, whenever magnetic charge excitations emerge over time, they tend to get screened by opposite magnetic charges from the environment,’ explains Dr. Farhan.

The researchers at Berkeley used photoemission electron microscopy, or PEEM, to make the observations. This technique images the direction of magnetization in individual nanomagnets. With the magnetic moments thermally fluctuating, the creation and decay of magnetic polarons could be imaged in real space and time. Postdoctoral researcher Charlotte Peterson and Professor Mikko Alava at Aalto University (Finland) performed simulations, which confirmed the rich thermodynamic behavior of the spin ice system.

‘The experiments also demonstrate that magnetic excitations can be engineered at will by a clever choice of lattice geometry and the size and shape of individual nanomagnets. Thus, artificial spin ice is a prime example of a designer material. Instead of accepting what nature offers, it is now possible to assemble new materials from known building blocks with purposefully designed functionalities,’ says Professor Sebastiaan van Dijken from Aalto University.

‘This concept, which goes well beyond magnetic metamaterials, is only just emerging and will dramatically shape the frontier of materials research in the next decade,’ adds Professor van Dijken.

Contacts and sources: 

Professor Mikko Alava
Aalto University 

Citation: Alan Farhan, Andreas Scholl, Charlotte F. Petersen, Luca Anghinolfi, Clemens Wuth, Scott Dhuey, Rajesh V. Chopdekar, Paula Mellado, Mikko J. Alava & Sebastiaan van Dijken.
Thermodynamics of emergent magnetic charge screening in artificial spin ice.
Nature Communications 7 (2016). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12635