Field and current control of the electrical conductivity of an artificial two-dimensional honeycomb lattice*

The conductivity of a neodymium-based artificial honeycomb lattice undergoes dramatic changes upon application of magnetic fields and currents. We attribute these changes to a redistribution of magnetic charges that are formed at the vertices of the honeycomb due to the non-vanishing net flux of magnetization from adjacent magnetic elements. We suggest that the application of a large magnetic field or a current causes a transition from a disordered state, in which magnetic charges are distributed at random, to an ordered state, in which they are regularly arranged on the sites of two interpenetrating triangular Wigner crystals.