Multiple energy-scales in vertex-frustrated mesospin systems

Abstract

The interplay between topology and energy-hierarchy plays a vital role in the collective magnetic order in artificial ferroic systems. Here we investigate, experimentally, the effect of having one or two activation energies of interacting Ising-like magnetic islands -- mesospins -- in thermalized, vertex-frustrated lattices. The thermally arrested magnetic states of the elements were determined using synchrotron-based magnetic microscopy after cooling the samples from temperatures above the Curie temperature of the material. Statistical analysis of the correlations between mesospins across several length-scales, reveals changes in the magnetic order, reflecting the amount of ground state plaquettes realized for a vertex-frustrated lattice. We show that the latter depends on the presence, or not, of different activation energies.