Artificial Spin Ice: A Ratchet Made of Tiny Magnets
A novel functional material based on magnetically coupled nanomagnets known as artificial spin ice has been created by researchers from Mesoscopic Systems (Prof. Laura Heyderman), the University of Glasgow and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). The collective behaviour of the system gives rise to a thermal ratchet, in which the average magnetisation rotates in a single direction – a chiral ice with potential applications in nanoscale devices such as nanomotors, actuators, sensors and data storage.
Simulation of the magnetic state observed in the x-ray measurements. Upper part: The magnetization points towards the bottom of the image in the ‘dark’ nanomagnets and towards the top of the image in the ‘white’ nanomagnets. Lower part: simulated magnetic-field structure within the array, generated by the magnetic north (brown) and south (blue) poles within each nanomagnet.
- Emergent dynamic chirality in a thermally driven artificial spin ratchet, Gliga S, Hrkac G, Donnelly C, Büchi J, Kleibert A, Cui J, Farhan A, Kirk E, Chopdekar RV, Masaki Y, Bingham NS, Scholl A, Stamps RL and Heyderman LJ, Nature Materials, external page DOI:10.1038/nmat5007 (2017).
- external page News & views article in Nature Materials
- external page PSI scientific highlight
- external page Press release by the University of Glasgow