title: Reducing disorder in artificial kagome ice.
abstract: 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.
authors: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
authors: Stephen A
authors: SA
authors: Daunheimer
authors: Olga
authors: O
authors: Petrova
authors: Oleg
authors: O
authors: Tchernyshyov
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Cumings