Tension-free Dirac Strings and Steered Magnetic Charges in 3D Artificial Spin Ice

Abstract

Dipolar Spin Ices (DSI) are geometrically frustrated magnetic materials, where the moments are arranged on the sites of a pyrochlore lattice [1]. The ground-state obeys the ice-rule, where two magnetic moments point to the center of the tetrahedral unit cell and two point out. If the rule is broken, i.e. one moment is switched, a net magnetic charge is observed at the center of the tetrahedron, referred to as magnetic monopoles. The trace of the switched magnetic moments is referred to as a Dirac string, which has magnetic monopoles at its ends. However, these materials require cryogenic conditions for the stability of monopoles.To study the magnetic monopoles on more suitable platform, artificial spin ices (ASI) consisting of elongated magnetic islands were considered [2]. Their 2D nature lifts the degeneracy of the ground state, as not all ice-rule obeying vertices have equal energies. Due to this differentiation between energetic states of the vertices, the Dirac strings bind the monopoles and store energy, limiting the mobility within the lattice.Here, we combine the advantages of DSI and 2D ASI, and present a 3D ASI lattice [3], where 3D ellipsoids with nearly perfect ising behavior are arranged on an Ice Ih crystal, where the angle between the ellipsoids is always θ = 109.5°, see Fig. 1. This symmetry recovers the lifted degeneracy of the ground state and enables tension-free Dirac strings.Based on the definitions of unbound magnetic monopoles [4], we show that the mobility threshold for magnetic charges is by 2 eV lower than their unbinding energy, while the propagation barrier is constant. The energy of the system does not increase with the length of the Dirac string, showing its tension-free nature. Furthermore, we apply external global fields and steer one magnetic monopole in the desired direction without creating additional magnetic charges, see Fig. 2. Finite temperature micromagnetic analysis reveals that the magnetic monopoles within the 3D ASI lattice are stable and steerable at room temperature.  Fig.1: 3DASI lattice with 3D and top view.  Fig. 2: Averaged magnetization and applied field with respect to time, and the schematic magnetic configurations before and after propagation of monopole.