Magnetic charge injection in spin ice: a new way to fragmentation
Abstract
The complexity embedded in condensed matter fertilizes the discovery of new states of matter, enriched by ingredients like frustration. Illustrating examples in magnetic systems are Kitaev spin liquids, skyrmions phases, or spin ices. These unconventional ground states support exotic excitations, for example the magnetic charges in spin ices, also called monopoles. Beyond their discovery, an important challenge is to be able to control and manipulate them. Here, we propose a new mechanism to inject monopoles in a spin ice through a staggered magnetic field. We show theoretically, and demonstrate experimentally in the HoIrO pyrochlore iridate, that it results in the stabilization of a monopole crystal, which exhibits magnetic fragmentation. In this new state of matter, the magnetic moment fragments into an ordered part and a persistently fluctuating one. Compared to conventional spin ices, the different nature of the excitations in this fragmented state opens the way to novel tunable field-induced and dynamical behaviors.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1702.02864,
title = {Magnetic charge injection in spin ice: a new way to fragmentation},
author = {E. Lefrançois and V. Cathelin and E. Lhotel and J. Robert and P. Lejay and C. V. Colin and B. Canals and F. Damay and J. Ollivier and B. Fåk and L. C. Chapon and R. Ballou and V. Simonet},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.02864},
year = {2017}
}