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Title: Ice rule fragility via topological charge transfer in artificial colloidal ice

Abstract

Artificial particle ices are model systems of constrained, interacting particles. They have been introduced theoretically to study ice-manifolds emergent from frustration, along with domain wall and grain boundary dynamics, doping, pinning-depinning, controlled transport of topological defects, avalanches, and memory effects. Recently such particle-based ices have been experimentally realized with vortices in nano-patterned superconductors or gravitationally trapped colloids. Here we demonstrate that, although these ices are generally considered equivalent to magnetic spin ices, they can access a novel spectrum of phenomenologies that are inaccessible to the latter. With experiments, theory and simulations we demonstrate that in mixed coordination geometries, entropy-driven negative monopoles spontaneously appear at a density determined by the vertex-mixture ratio. Unlike its spin-based analogue, the colloidal system displays a “fragile ice” manifold, where local energetics oppose the ice rule, which is instead enforced through conservation of the global topological charge. The fragile colloidal ice, stabilized by topology, can be spontaneously broken by topological charge transfer.

Authors:
 [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [3]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj (Romania)
  2. Universitat de Barcelona (Spain)
  3. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
OSTI Identifier:
1479943
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-18-29641
Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 9; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Material Science

Citation Formats

Libál, András, Lee, Dong Yun, Ortiz-Ambriz, Antonio, Reichhardt, Charles, Reichhardt, Cynthia J. O., Tierno, Pietro, and Nisoli, Cristiano. Ice rule fragility via topological charge transfer in artificial colloidal ice. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06631-1.
Libál, András, Lee, Dong Yun, Ortiz-Ambriz, Antonio, Reichhardt, Charles, Reichhardt, Cynthia J. O., Tierno, Pietro, & Nisoli, Cristiano. Ice rule fragility via topological charge transfer in artificial colloidal ice. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06631-1
Libál, András, Lee, Dong Yun, Ortiz-Ambriz, Antonio, Reichhardt, Charles, Reichhardt, Cynthia J. O., Tierno, Pietro, and Nisoli, Cristiano. 2018. "Ice rule fragility via topological charge transfer in artificial colloidal ice". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06631-1. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1479943.
@article{osti_1479943,
title = {Ice rule fragility via topological charge transfer in artificial colloidal ice},
author = {Libál, András and Lee, Dong Yun and Ortiz-Ambriz, Antonio and Reichhardt, Charles and Reichhardt, Cynthia J. O. and Tierno, Pietro and Nisoli, Cristiano},
abstractNote = {Artificial particle ices are model systems of constrained, interacting particles. They have been introduced theoretically to study ice-manifolds emergent from frustration, along with domain wall and grain boundary dynamics, doping, pinning-depinning, controlled transport of topological defects, avalanches, and memory effects. Recently such particle-based ices have been experimentally realized with vortices in nano-patterned superconductors or gravitationally trapped colloids. Here we demonstrate that, although these ices are generally considered equivalent to magnetic spin ices, they can access a novel spectrum of phenomenologies that are inaccessible to the latter. With experiments, theory and simulations we demonstrate that in mixed coordination geometries, entropy-driven negative monopoles spontaneously appear at a density determined by the vertex-mixture ratio. Unlike its spin-based analogue, the colloidal system displays a “fragile ice” manifold, where local energetics oppose the ice rule, which is instead enforced through conservation of the global topological charge. The fragile colloidal ice, stabilized by topology, can be spontaneously broken by topological charge transfer.},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-06631-1},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1479943}, journal = {Nature Communications},
issn = {2041-1723},
number = 1,
volume = 9,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Oct 08 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Mon Oct 08 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 19 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

Fig. 1 Fig. 1 : Schematic of the system. The experimental system consists of paramagnetic colloids placed via optical tweezers in lithographic double wells arranged along the edges of a square lattice. Each colloid is gravitationally trapped in one microgroove, and it can sit in one of the two wells. A perpendicularmore » field B magnetizes the colloids, thus introducing a repulsive dipolar interaction. The edges of the square lattice can be decimated by simply removing the colloids from the corresponding microgrooves (dashed green rectangles). Red and blue glows denote positive and negative topological charges, respectively« less

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Works referenced in this record:

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Works referencing / citing this record:

On the micromagnetic behavior of dipolar-coupled nanomagnets in defective square artificial spin ice systems
journal, December 2019


Colloquium : Ice rule and emergent frustration in particle ice and beyond
journal, December 2019


Advances in artificial spin ice
journal, November 2019


Competing orders in colloidal kagome ice: Importance of the in-trap motion of the particles
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Orientational and directional locking of colloidal clusters driven across periodic surfaces
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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.