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Bypassing Dynamical Freezing in Artificial Kagome Ice.
V Schánilec1,2, B Canals1, V Uhlíř2
1Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institut NEEL, 38000 Grenoble, France.
Physical Review Letters
|August 16, 2020
Summary
Researchers bypassed dynamical freezing in artificial kagome ice, accessing elusive spin liquid states and ordered ground states at room temperature for convenient study.
Area of Science:
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Magnetism
- Materials Science
Background:
- Spin liquids are disordered quantum states that fluctuate even at low temperatures.
- Experimentally, spin liquids often freeze dynamically before reaching their true ground state.
- This dynamical freezing hinders the study of ground state configurations and low-energy states in artificial frustrated magnets.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a method to bypass dynamical freezing in artificial kagome ice systems.
- To access and study dynamically inaccessible ordered ground states and spin liquid configurations.
- To identify the mechanism responsible for dynamical freezing in dipolar kagome ice.
Main Methods:
- Utilized an artificial kagome ice system.
- Implemented a novel method to overcome dynamical freezing.
- Reproducibly obtained and imaged ground state and spin liquid configurations in real space.
Main Results:
- Successfully bypassed dynamical freezing in the artificial kagome ice.
- Achieved reproducible access to the ordered ground state and fragmented spin liquid configurations.
- Enabled real-space imaging and convenient study of these states at room temperature.
- Identified the specific mechanism of dynamical freezing in the dipolar kagome ice.
Conclusions:
- Dynamical freezing can be overcome in artificial kagome ice, enabling the study of exotic spin states.
- The developed method provides a pathway to investigate ground states and spin liquid physics.
- Understanding the dynamical freezing mechanism is crucial for designing future frustrated magnet systems.
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