Restoration of the third law in spin ice thin films

L. Bovo (), X. Moya, D. Prabhakaran, Yeong-Ah Soh, A.T. Boothroyd, N.D. Mathur, G. Aeppli and S.T. Bramwell
Additional contact information
L. Bovo: University College London, 17-19 Gordon Street
X. Moya: University of Cambridge
D. Prabhakaran: University of Oxford, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road
Yeong-Ah Soh: University College London, 17-19 Gordon Street
A.T. Boothroyd: University of Oxford, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road
N.D. Mathur: University of Cambridge
G. Aeppli: University College London, 17-19 Gordon Street
S.T. Bramwell: University College London, 17-19 Gordon Street

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract A characteristic feature of spin ice is its apparent violation of the third law of thermodynamics. This leads to a number of interesting properties including the emergence of an effective vacuum for magnetic monopoles and their currents – magnetricity. Here we add a new dimension to the experimental study of spin ice by fabricating thin epitaxial films of Dy2Ti2O7, varying between 5 and 60 monolayers on an inert substrate. The films show the distinctive characteristics of spin ice at temperatures >2 K, but at lower temperature we find evidence of a zero entropy state. This restoration of the third law in spin ice thin films is consistent with a predicted strain-induced ordering of a very unusual type, previously discussed for analogous electrical systems. Our results show how the physics of frustrated pyrochlore magnets such as spin ice may be significantly modified in thin-film samples.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4439 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms4439

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4439

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().