Direct observation of spin correlations in an artificial triangular lattice Ising spin system with grazing-incidence small-angle neutron scattering

The triangular lattice with Ising magnetic moments is an archetypical example of geometric frustration. In the case of dipolar-coupled out-of-plane moments, the geometric frustration results in a disordered classical spin-liquid state at higher temperatures while the system is predicted to transitio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nanoscale horizons 2021-06, Vol.6 (6), p.474-481
Main Authors: Pip, Petai, Glavic, Artur, Skjærvø, Sandra Helen, Weber, Anja, Smerald, Andrew, Zhernenkov, Kirill, Leo, Naëmi, Mila, Frédéric, Philippe, Laetitia, Heyderman, Laura J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Born approximation
Chemistry
Ferromagnetism
Grazing incidence
Ising model
Low temperature
Magnetic moments
Neutron scattering
Neutrons
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Summary:The triangular lattice with Ising magnetic moments is an archetypical example of geometric frustration. In the case of dipolar-coupled out-of-plane moments, the geometric frustration results in a disordered classical spin-liquid state at higher temperatures while the system is predicted to transition to an anti-ferromagnetic stripe ground state at low temperatures. In this work we fabricate artificial triangular Ising spin systems without and with uniaxial in-plane compression to tune the nature and temperature of the correlations. We probe the energy scale and nature of magnetic correlations by grazing-incidence small-angle neutron scattering. In particular, we apply a newly-developed empirical structure-factor model to describe the measured short-range correlated spin-liquid state, and find good agreement with theoretical predictions. We demonstrate that grazing-incidence neutron scattering on our high-quality samples, in conjunction with detailed modeling of the scattering using the Distorted Wave Born Approximation, can be used to experimentally quantify the spin-liquid-like correlations in highly-frustrated artificial spin systems. Short-range correlations in the highly frustrated spin-liquid state of an artificial triangular-lattice Ising spin system were measured using grazing incidence small-angle neutron scattering and quantified using an empirical structure factor.
ISSN:2055-6756
2055-6764
2055-6764
DOI:10.1039/d1nh00043h