A characteristic feature of spin ice is its apparent violation of the third law of thermodynamics. This leads to a number of interesting properties including the emergence of an effective vacuum for magnetic monopoles and their currents - magnetricity. Here we add a new dimension to the experimental study of spin ice by fabricating thin epitaxial films of Dy2Ti2O7, varying between 5 and 60 monolayers on an inert substrate. The films show the distinctive characteristics of spin ice at temperatures >2 K, but at lower temperature we find evidence of a zero entropy state. This restoration of the third law in spin ice thin films is consistent with a predicted strain-induced ordering of a very unusual type, previously discussed for analogous electrical systems. Our results show how the physics of frustrated pyrochlore magnets such as spin ice may be significantly modified in thin-film samples.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3959195 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4439 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Active Inference and Artificial Spin Ice: Control Processes and State Selection.
ACS Nano
January 2025
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg R3T 2N2, Canada.
Theory and simulations are used to demonstrate implementation of a variational Bayes algorithm called "active inference" in interacting arrays of nanomagnetic elements. The algorithm requires stochastic elements, and a simplified model based on a magnetic artificial spin ice geometry is used to illustrate how nanomagnets can generate the required random dynamics. Examples of tracking and PID control are demonstrated and shown to be consistent with the original stochastic differential equation formulation of active inference.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpitaxial Stabilization of a Pyrochlore Interface between Weyl Semimetal and Spin Ice.
Nano Lett
January 2025
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, United States.
Pyrochlore materials are known for their exotic magnetic and topological phases arising from complex interactions among electron correlations, band topology, and geometric frustration. Interfaces between different pyrochlore crystals characterized by complex many-body ground states hold immense potential for novel interfacial phenomena due to the strong interactions between these phases. However, the realization of such interfaces has been severely hindered by limitations in material synthesis methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGeneral Spin-Restricted Open-Shell Configuration Interaction Approach: Application to Metal K-Edge X-ray Absorption Spectra of Ferro- and Antiferromagnetically Coupled Dimers.
J Phys Chem A
January 2025
Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Kaiser-Wilheim-Platz 1, 45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
In this work, we present a generalized implementation of the previously developed restricted open-shell configuration interaction singles (ROCIS) family of methods. The new method allows us to treat high-spin (HS) ferro- as well as antiferromagnetically (AF) coupled systems while retaining the total spin as a good quantum number. To achieve this important and nontrivial goal, we employ the machinery of the iterative configuration expansion (ICE) method, which is able to tackle general configuration interaction (CI) problems on the basis of spin-adapted configuration state functions (CSFs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSignatures of Spinon Dynamics and Phase Structure of Dipolar-Octupolar Quantum Spin Ices in Two-Dimensional Coherent Spectroscopy.
Phys Rev Lett
November 2024
Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Str. 38, Dresden 01187, Germany.
We study how sharp signatures of fractionalization emerge in nonlinear spectroscopy experiments on spin liquids with separated energy scales. Our model is that of dipolar-octupolar rare earth pyrochlore materials, prime candidates for realizing quantum spin ice. This family of three-dimensional quantum spin liquids exhibits fractionalization of spin degrees of freedom into spinons charged under an emergent U(1) gauge field.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFField-Induced Antiferromagnetic Correlations in a Nanopatterned Van der Waals Ferromagnet: A Potential Artificial Spin Ice.
Adv Sci (Weinh)
December 2024
The Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel.
Nano-patterned magnetic materials have opened new venues for the investigation of strongly correlated phenomena including artificial spin-ice systems, geometric frustration, and magnetic monopoles, for technologically important applications such as reconfigurable ferromagnetism. With the advent of atomically thin 2D van der Waals (vdW) magnets, a pertinent question is whether such compounds could make their way into this realm where interactions can be tailored so that unconventional states of matter can be assessed. Here, it is shown that square islands of CrGeTe vdW ferromagnets distributed in a grid manifest antiferromagnetic correlations, essential to enable frustration resulting in an artificial spin-ice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!