Heavy and light monopoles in magnetic reversion in artificial spin ice

This work makes a theoretical study of the dynamics of emergent elemental excitations in artificial spin ice systems with hexagonal geometry during the magnetic reversion of the system. The magnetic and physical parameters of the nanoislands that form the array are considered as variables in the study. The parameters considered are: the energy barrier for the inversion of each nanoisland, the magnetic moment of the nanomagnets and the possible disorder in the sample. Our results show that the reversion dynamic presents two distinct mechanisms of magnetic reversion, with different elemental excitations for each mechanism. The first mechanism presents a reversion with the appearance of magnetic monopoles that do not move in the samples (heavy monopoles) and the absence of Dirac chains. In the other mechanism elemental magnetic excitations (light monopoles) appear that move great distances in the sample, giving rise to extensive Dirac chains during the magnetic reversion.     

Dynamics of a system of compact spin bodies with charges and magnetic moments

Universal equations of motion of the second kind previously proposed by the author are used to investigate the dynamics of a system of compact spin bodies with charges and magnetic moments. It is shown that the resulting post-Newtonian equations of motion do not coincide with existing results.Astrophysics Institute, Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 7, pp. 56–62, July, 1994.     

Finite-temperature transitions in dipolar spin ice in a large magnetic field

We use Monte Carlo simulations to identify the mechanism that allows for phase transitions in dipolar spin ice to occur and survive for an applied magnetic field H much larger in strength than that of the spin-spin interactions. In the most generic and highest symmetry case, the spins on one out of four sublattices of the pyrochlore decouple from the total local exchange+dipolar+applied field. In the special case where H is aligned perfectly along the [110] crystallographic direction, spin chains perpendicular to H show a transition to q=X long-range order, which proceeds via a one- to three-dimensional crossover. We propose that these transitions are relevant to the origin of specific heat features observed in powder samples of the Dy2Ti2O7 spin ice material for H above 1 Tesla.     

Magnetic anisotropy of elongated thin ferromagnetic nano-islands for artificial spin ice arrays

The energetics of thin elongated ferromagnetic nano-islands is considered for some different shapes, aspect ratios and applied magnetic field directions. These nano-island particles are important for artificial spin ice materials. For low temperature, the magnetic internal energy of an individual particle is evaluated numerically as a function of the direction of a particle's net magnetization. This leads to estimations of effective anisotropy constants for (1)?the easy axis along the particle's long direction, and (2)?the hard axis along the particle's thin direction. A spin relaxation algorithm together with fast Fourier transform for the demagnetization field is used to solve the micromagnetics problem for a thin system. The magnetic hysteresis is also found. The results indicate some possibilities for controlling the equilibrium and dynamics in spin ice materials by using different island geometries.     

Diversity enabling equilibration: disorder and the ground state in artificial spin ice

We report a novel approach to the question of whether and how the ground state can be achieved in square artificial spin ices where frustration is incomplete. We identify two sources of randomness that affect the approach to ground state: quenched disorder in the island response to fields and randomness in the sequence of driving fields. Numerical simulations show that quenched disorder can lead to final states with lower energy, and randomness in the sequence of driving fields always lowers the final energy attained by the system. We use a network picture to understand these two effects: disorder in island responses creates new dynamical pathways, and a random sequence of driving fields allows more pathways to be followed.     

Why spin ice obeys the ice rules

The low-temperature entropy of the spin ice compounds, such as and , is well described by the nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic Ising model on the pyrochlore lattice, i.e., by the "ice rules." This is surprising since the dominant coupling between the spins is their long ranged dipole interaction. We show that this phenomenon can be understood rather elegantly: one can construct a model dipole interaction, by adding terms of shorter range, which yields precisely the same ground states, and hence entropy, as the nearest-neighbor interaction. A treatment of the small difference between the model and true dipole interactions reproduces the numerical work by Gingras et al. in detail. We are also led to a more general concept of projective equivalence between interactions.     

Ground state lost but degeneracy found: the effective thermodynamics of artificial spin ice

We analyze the rotational demagnetization of artificial spin ice, a recently realized array of nanoscale single-domain ferromagnetic islands. Demagnetization does not anneal this model system into its antiferromagnetic ground state: the moments have a static disordered configuration similar to the frozen state of the spin ice materials. We demonstrate that this athermal system has an effective extensive degeneracy and we introduce a formalism that can predict the populations of local states in this icelike system with no adjustable parameters.     

Spin ice: magnetic excitations without monopole signatures using muon spin rotation

Theory predicts the low temperature magnetic excitations in spin ices consist of deconfined magnetic charges, or monopoles. A recent transverse-field (TF) muon spin rotation (μSR) experiment [S.?T. Bramwell et al., Nature (London) 461, 956 (2009)] reports results claiming to be consistent with the temperature and magnetic field dependence anticipated for monopole nucleation-the so-called second Wien effect. We demonstrate via a new series of μSR experiments in Dy(2)Ti(2)O(7) that such an effect is not observable in a TF μSR experiment. Rather, as found in many highly frustrated magnetic materials, we observe spin fluctuations which become temperature independent at low temperatures, behavior which dominates over any possible signature of thermally nucleated monopole excitations.     

Proton spin relaxation in hexagonal ice

Measurements of the rotating frame proton spin relaxation timeT _1p in hexagonal ice single crystals as a function of temperature ? for various rotating magnetic field strengths reveal the expectedT _1p minimum at the lowest practicable field values. This allows a very precise determination of the proton correlation (? molecular jump) time τ_c and the related activation energy ΔE by means of the theoretical reasoning of relaxation spectroscopy. We find the Arrhenius-law temperature dependenceτ _c=1.99×10^?17exp(0.603/8.61×10^?5 ?)sec, which is in good agreement with our earlier indirect derivation.     

Nonmonotonic zero-point entropy in diluted spin ice

Water ice and spin ice are important model systems in which theory can directly account for "zero-point" entropy associated with quenched configurational disorder. Spin ice differs from water ice in the important respect that its fundamental constituents, the spins of the magnetic ions, can be removed through replacement with nonmagnetic ions while keeping the lattice structure intact. In order to investigate the interplay of frustrated interactions and quenched disorder, we have performed systematic heat capacity measurements on spin ice materials which have been thus diluted up to 90%. Investigations of both Ho and Dy spin ices reveal that the zero-point entropy depends nonmonotonically on dilution and approaches the value of Rln2 in the limit of high dilution. The data are in good agreement with a generalization of Pauling's theory for the entropy of ice.     

Reducing disorder in artificial kagome ice

Artificial spin ice has become a valuable tool for understanding magnetic interactions on a microscopic level. The strength in the approach lies in the ability of a synthetic array of nanoscale magnets to mimic crystalline materials, composed of atomic magnetic moments. Unfortunately, these nanoscale magnets, patterned from metal alloys, can show substantial variation in relevant quantities such as the coercive field, with deviations up to 16%. By carefully studying the reversal process of artificial kagome ice, we can directly measure the distribution of coercivities, and, by switching from disconnected islands to a connected structure, we find that the coercivity distribution can achieve a deviation of only 3.3%. These narrow deviations should allow the observation of behavior that mimics canonical spin-ice materials more closely.     

Dynamics of electron spin in undulators

The problem on the evolution of electron spin in inhomogeneous magnetic fields of special type is solved on the basis of the classical Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi equation. The results obtained are used to analyze the behavior of electron spin in magnetic undulators. Moscow State University. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 1, pp. 38–40, January, 2000.     

Disorder strength and field-driven ground state domain formation in artificial spin ice: experiment, simulation, and theory

Quenched disorder affects how nonequilibrium systems respond to driving. In the context of artificial spin ice, an athermal system comprised of geometrically frustrated classical Ising spins with a twofold degenerate ground state, we give experimental and numerical evidence of how such disorder washes out edge effects and provide an estimate of disorder strength in the experimental system. We prove analytically that a sequence of applied fields with fixed amplitude is unable to drive the system to its ground state from a saturated state. These results should be relevant for other systems where disorder does not change the nature of the ground state.     

Dynamics of nuclear spins appearing in transport measurements of an inter-edge spin diode in tilted magnetic fields

In a wide range of magnetic fields nonlinear transport between spin polarized edge channels is studied. The observed hysteresis of the I–V characteristic is attributed to the dynamic nuclear spin polarization due to the electronic spin-flip processes. We find extremely long nuclear spin relaxation times in the regime where the hyperfine interaction with electrons is switched off.     

The magnetic charges of stable self-dual monopoles

Gauge theories, in which the Higgs field lies in the adjoint representation, has zero self-coupling (the BPS limit) and leads to an exact symmetry of the local form U(1) × K with K semisimple, are considered. The charges of potentially stable magnetic monopoles, arising as classical solutions, are analysed and it is found that they have a structure consistent with their interpretation as heavy gauge particles of an overall symmetry group dual to the original one, providing further circumstantial evidence for the duality between electric and magnetic fields in this type of theory.     

Long-range order at low temperatures in dipolar spin ice

It has recently been suggested that long-range magnetic dipolar interactions are responsible for spin ice behavior in the Ising pyrochlore magnets Dy2Ti2O7 and Ho2Ti2O7. We report here numerical results on the low temperature properties of the dipolar spin ice model, obtained via a new loop algorithm which greatly improves the dynamics at low temperature. We recover the previously reported missing entropy in this model, and find a first order transition to a long-range ordered phase with zero total magnetization at very low temperature. We discuss the relevance of these results to Dy2Ti2O7 and Ho2Ti2O7.     

Low energy spin dynamics in the spin ice Ho2Sn2O7

The magnetic properties of Ho(2)Sn(2)O(7) have been investigated and compared to other spin ice compounds. Although the lattice has expanded by 3% relative to the better studied Ho(2)Ti(2)O(7) spin ice, no significant changes were observed in the high temperature properties, T is more or approximately equal to 20 K. As the temperature is lowered and correlations develop, Ho(2)Sn(2)O(7) enters its quantum phase at a slightly higher temperature than Ho(2)Ti(2)O(7) and is more antiferromagnetic in character. Below 80 K a weak inelastic mode associated with the holmium nuclear spin system has been measured. The hyperfine field at the holmium nucleus was found to be ≈700 T.     

Dynamics of two overlapping spin ensembles interacting by spin exchange

We describe linear and nonlinear dynamics of spin-polarized K and 3He ensembles interacting by spin exchange. The interactions are dominated by the imaginary part of the spin-exchange cross section and each spin species is primarily affected by the average magnetization of the other. Operating in a very low magnetic field we demonstrate novel dynamics when the electron and nuclear spin precession frequencies are nearly matched. We observe transverse damping as well as a dynamic instability of the 3He spins interacting with polarized K vapor. We also demonstrate operation as a self-compensating comagnetometer, useful for tests of CPT violation and other precision measurements.     

Dynamics of spin fluctuations in the Heisenberg paramagnet

The lowest-energy poles of the dynamic spin propagator for the Heisenberg model at T ? T_c are estimated using a gaussian approximation for the second-order memory function. The poles are connected with the observed maxima of the neutron scattering function at large momentum transfer.