Condensed Matter

The discovery of magnetic bistability in Mn 12 more than 20 years ago marked the birth of molecular magnetism, an extremely fertile interdisciplinary field and a powerful route to create tailored magnetic nanostructures. However, the difficulty to determine interactions in complex polycentric molecules often prevents their understanding. Mn 12 is an outstanding example of this difficulty: although it is the forefather and most studied of all molecular nanomagnets, an unambiguous determination of even the leading magnetic exchange interactions is still lacking. Here we exploit four-dimensional inelastic neutron scattering to portray how individual spins fluctuate around the magnetic ground state, thus fixing the exchange couplings of Mn 12 for the first time. Our results demonstrate the power of four-dimensional inelastic neutron scattering as an unrivaled tool to characterize magnetic clusters.

Artificial spin ice systems have seen burgeoning interest due to their intriguing physics and potential applications in reprogrammable memory, logic and magnonics. In-depth comparisons of distinct artificial spin systems are crucial to advancing the field and vital work has been done on characteristic behaviours of artificial spin ices arranged on different geometric lattices. Integration of artificial spin ice with functional magnonics is a relatively recent research direction, with a host of promising early results. As the field progresses, studies examining the effects of lattice geometry on the magnonic response are increasingly significant. While studies have investigated the effects of different lattice tilings such as square and kagome (honeycomb), little comparison exists between systems comprising continuously-connected nanostructures, where spin-waves propagate through the system via exchange interaction, and systems with nanobars disconnected at vertices where spin-waves are transferred via stray dipolar-field. Here, we perform a Brillouin light scattering study of the magnonic response in two kagome artificial spin ices, a continuously-connected system and a disconnected system with vertex gaps. We observe distinctly different high-frequency dynamics and characteristic magnetization reversal regimes between the systems, with key distinctions in system microstate during reversal, internal field profiles and spin-wave mode quantization numbers. These observations are pertinent for the fundamental understanding of artificial spin systems and the design and engineering of such systems for functional magnonic applications.

The investigation of curved low-dimensional systems is a topic of great research interest. Such investigations include two-dimensional systems with cylindrical symmetry. In this work, we present a numerical study of the electronic transport properties of metallic nanotubes deviating from the cylindrical form either by having a bump or a depression, and under the influence of a magnetic field. Under these circumstances, it is found that the nanotube may be used as an energy high-pass filter for electrons. It is also shown that the device can be used to tune the angular momentum of transmitted electrons.

Magnetometry measurements of Fe/U and Ni/U bilayer systems reveal a non-monotonic dependence of the magnetic anisotropy for U thicknesses in the range 0 nm - 8 nm, with the Fe/U bilayers showing a more prominent effect as compared to Ni/U. The stronger response for Fe/U is ascribed to the stronger 3d-5f hybridization of Fe and U. This non-monotonic behaviour is thought to arise from quantum well states in the uranium overlayers. Estimating an oscillation period from the non-monotonic data, and comparing it to Density Functional Theory calculations, we find that wavevector matches to the experimental data can be made to regions of high spectral density in (010) and (100) cuts of the electronic structure of{\alpha}-U, consistent with the measured texture in the films. Unexpectedly, there are also indications of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in a subset of Fe/U samples at relatively large U thickness.

Emerging new concepts, such as magnetic charge dynamics in two-dimensional magnetic material, can provide novel mechanism for spin based electrical transport at macroscopic length. In artificial spin ice of single domain elements, magnetic charge's relaxation can create an efficient electrical pathway for conduction by generating fluctuations in local magnetic field that couple with conduction electrons spins. In a first demonstration, we show that the electrical conductivity is propelled by more than an order of magnitude at room temperature due to magnetic charge defects sub-picosecond relaxation in artificial magnetic honeycomb lattice. The direct evidence to the proposed electrical conduction mechanism in two-dimensional frustrated magnet points to the untapped potential for spintronic applications in this system.

Spins in SiGe quantum dots are promising candidates for quantum bits but are also challenging due to the valley degeneracy which could potentially cause spin decoherence and weak spin-orbital coupling. In this work we demonstrate that valley states can serve as an asset that enables two-axis control of a singlet-triplet qubit formed in a double quantum dot without the application of a magnetic field gradient. We measure the valley spectrum in each dot using magnetic field spectroscopy of Zeeman split triplet states. The interdot transition between ground states requires an electron to flip between valleys, which in turn provides a g-factor difference ?g between two dots. This ?g serves as an effective magnetic field gradient and allows for qubit rotations with a rate that increases linearly with an external magnetic field. We measured several interdot transitions and found that this valley introduced ?g is universal and electrically tunable. This could potentially simplify scaling up quantum information processing in the SiGe platform by removing the requirement for magnetic field gradients which are difficult to engineer.

Nodal lines, as one-dimensional band degeneracies in momentum space, usually feature a linear energy splitting. Here, we propose the concept of magnetic higher-order nodal lines, which are nodal lines with higher-order energy splitting and realized in magnetic systems with broken time reversal symmetry. We provide sufficient symmetry conditions for stabilizing magnetic quadratic and cubic nodal lines, based on which concrete lattice models are constructed to demonstrate their existence. Unlike its counterpart in nonmagnetic systems, the magnetic quadratic nodal line can exist as the only band degeneracy at the Fermi level. We show that these nodal lines can be accompanied by torus surface states, which form a surface band that span over the whole surface Brillouin zone. Under symmetry breaking, these magnetic nodal lines can be transformed into a variety of interesting topological states, such as three-dimensional quantum anomalous Hall insulator, multiple linear nodal lines, and magnetic triple-Weyl semimetal. The three-dimensional quantum anomalous Hall insulator features a Hall conductivity ? xy quantized in unit of e 2 /(hd) where d is the lattice constant normal to the x - y plane. Our work reveals previously unknown topological states, and offers guidance to search for them in realistic material systems.

The physical characterisation and understanding of molecular magnetic materials is one of the most important steps towards the integration of such systems in hybrid spintronic devices. Amongst the many characterisation techniques employed in such a task, Inelastic Neutron Scattering (INS) stands as one of the most powerful and sensitive tools to investigate their spin dynamics. Herein, the magnetic properties and spin dynamics of two dinuclear complexes, namely [(M(hfacac) 2 ) 2 (bpym)] (where M = Ni 2+ , Co 2+ , abbreviated in the following as Ni 2 , Co 2 ) are reported. These are model systems that could constitute fundamental units of future spintronic devices. By exploiting the highly sensitive IN5 Cold INS spectrometer, we are able to gain a deep insight into the spin dynamics of Ni 2 and to fully obtain the microscopic spin Hamiltonian parameters; while for Co 2 , a multitude of INS transitions are observed demonstrating the complexity of the magnetic properties of octahedral cobalt-based systems.

We present a hybrid semiconductor-based superconducting qubit device which remains coherent at magnetic fields up to 1 T. The qubit transition frequency exhibits periodic oscillations with magnetic field, consistent with interference effects due to the magnetic flux threading the cross section of the proximitized semiconductor nanowire junction. As induced superconductivity revives, additional coherent modes emerge at high magnetic fields, which we attribute to the interaction of the qubit and low-energy Andreev states.

We theoretically study the antiferromagnetic domain wall motion actuated by an inhomogeneous external magnetic field. The Lagrangian and the equations of motion of antiferromagnetic spins under an inhomogeneous magnetic field are derived, first in terms of the Néel vector, and then using collective coordinates of the domain wall. A solution is found that describes the actuation of a domain wall by an inhomogeneous field, in which the motion is initiated by a paramagnetic response of wall magnetization, which is then driven by a Stern-Gerlach like force. The effects of pinning potential are also investigated. These results are in good agreement with atomistic simulations. While the present formulation contains the so-called intrinsic magnetization associated with Néel texture, a supplementary discussion is given to reformulate the theory in terms of physical magnetization without the intrinsic magnetization.