Speaker
Description
We investigate the low energy state of an artificial colloidal ice, namely a collection of interacting paramagnetic colloids confined into a lattice of potential wells such that its geometry induces frustration via competing interactions at each vertex. In contrast to previous work with isotropic repulsions, we consider the case of time-average attractive interactions between the particles which are induced upon application of a high frequency, in-plane rotating magnetic field. We apply this new approach to the previously unstudied , geometrically frustrated penta-heptite lattice. Our numerical results reveal the degeneracy of the ground state resulting from the interplay between lattice geometry and pair interactions. The numerical procedure could be readily tested in experiments as it is based on real experimental parameters extracted from previous work.
The use of novel, frustrated geometry may be of interest for the fabrication of similar nano-scale logic device based on dipolar switching between the interacting units.
