Artificial square ice and related dipolar nanoarrays

Gunnar Moller 1, R. Moessner 2

Physical Review Letters 96 (2006) 237202

We study a frustrated dipolar array recently manufactured lithographically by Wang {\em et al.} [Nature {\bf 439}, 303 (2006)] in order to realize the square ice model in an artificial structure. We discuss models for thermodynamics and dynamics of this system. We show that an ice regime can be stabilized by small changes in the array geometry; a different magnetic state, kagome ice, can similarly be constructed. At low temperatures, the square ice regime is terminated by a thermodynamic ordering transition, which can be chosen to be ferro- or antiferromagnetic. We show that the arrays do not fully equilibrate experimentally, and identify a likely dynamical bottleneck.

  • 1. Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques (LPTMS),
    CNRS : UMR8626 – Université Paris XI – Paris Sud
  • 2. Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de l’ENS (LPTENS),
    CNRS : UMR8549 – Université Paris VI – Pierre et Marie Curie – Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris – ENS Paris
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