Textured heterogeneity in square artificial spin ice

J. C. T Lee, S. K. Mishra, V. S. Bhat, R. Streubel, B. Farmer, X. Shi, L. E. De Long, I. McNulty, P. Fischer, S. D. Kevan, and S. Roy

Phys. Rev. B 99, 024406 – Published 7 January 2019

Abstract

We report evidence of spontaneous formation of a heterogeneous network of superdomains in two-dimensional square artificial spin ice nanostructures in externally applied magnetic fields. Coherent resonant soft-x-ray scattering from such textures gives rise to unique internal structure in Bragg peaks. The magnetic heterogeneity is locally disordered but has a zigzag texture at longer length scales. Our result suggests that the macroscopic magnetic texture is derived from the microscopic structure of the Dirac strings.

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Received 25 September 2016
Revised 25 October 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.99.024406

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Spin ice

Coherent X-ray scattering Lithography Resonant elastic x-ray scattering X-ray diffraction X-ray resonant magnetic scattering

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

J. C. T Lee^1,2, S. K. Mishra^1,*, V. S. Bhat³, R. Streubel⁴, B. Farmer³, X. Shi^1,2, L. E. De Long³, I. McNulty⁵, P. Fischer^4,6, S. D. Kevan^1,2, and S. Roy^1,†

¹Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720-8229, USA
²Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1274, USA
³Department of Physics and Center for Advanced Materials, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0055, USA
⁴Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720-8229, USA
⁵Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
⁶Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA

^*Present address: School of Materials Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi 221005, India.
^†Corresponding author: sroy@lbl.gov

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Issue

Vol. 99, Iss. 2 — 1 January 2019

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