Spin-ices are frustrated magnets that support a particularly rich variety of emergent physics. Typically, it is the interplay of magnetic dipole interactions, spin anisotropy, and geometric frustration on the pyrochlore lattice that drives spin-ice formation. The relevant physics occurs at temperatures commensurate with the magnetic interaction strength, which for most systems is 1--5\,K. This low energy scale poses severe challenges for experimental studies of spin-ices and the practical exploitation of their unusual properties. Here, we show that non-magnetic cadmium cyanide (Cd(CN)2) exhibits analogous behaviour to magnetic spin-ices, but does so on a temperature scale that is nearly two orders of magnitude greater. The electric dipole moments of cyanide ions in Cd(CN)2 assume the role of magnetic pseudospins, with the difference in energy scale reflecting the increased strength of electric \emph{vs} magnetic dipolar interactions. As a result, spin-ice physics influences the structural behaviour of Cd(CN)2 even at room temperature.
@article{arxiv.1904.05749,
title = {Room temperature spin-ice physics in cadmium cyanide},
author = {Chloe S. Coates and Mia Baise and Arkadiy Simonov and Joshua W. Makepeace and Andrew G. Seel and Ronald I. Smith and Helen Y. Playford and David A. Keen and Renée Siegel and Adrian Schmutzler and Jürgen Senker and Ben Slater and Andrew L. Goodwin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.05749},
year = {2019}
}