Emergence of dominant liquid state in artificial honeycomb spin ice*

Emergence of dominant liquid state in artificial honeycomb spin ice Geometrically frustrated 2D artificial magnetic honeycomb lattices provide a unique platform for the exploration of emergent phenomena of fundamental importance with possible implications for quantum computing devices and algorithms. At the honeycomb vertices, quantum mechanical entities represented by spin-1/2 Pauli matrices, emerge due to converging or diverging fluxes. Among the many novel magnetic properties, our homegrown nanoscopic magnetic honeycomb lattice renders a thermally tunable system providing a disorder-free environment for exploring liquid-like short-range magnetic charge correlation resembling the spin liquid state of atomistic origin. The magnetic charge correlation exhibits massively degenerate ground state at low temperature, which remains unperturbed even in large magnetic field applications. Another significant aspect of these systems is that the magnetic charges are in perpetual dynamic state with ultra-fast picosecond relaxation kinetics between the honeycomb vertices.