Coulomb phase physics in artificial spin ice

This project aims at studying the physics of Coulomb phases in artificial spin ice matter. In particular, we plan to carry out a set of experiments allowing to probe in real space and time, the properties of Coulomb phase excitations, which behave as magnetically charged quasiparticles. These quasiparticles, often referred to as magnetic monopoles, are theoretically described by the laws of electrostatics: they repel or attract depending on the (magnetic) charge they carry and interact via a Coulomb potential at long distances. However, these properties (among others that we will also study) have never been visualized, directly and unambiguously, in an experimental system. This is what we intend to achieve in this project. In other words, we propose here to test experimentally, in two-dimensional frustrated arrays of interacting nanomagnets subjected to thermal fluctuations, the relevance of several theoretical predictions developed these last fifteen years and largely employed in frustrated magnetism.