The 37th QLC seminar
Speaker：Prof. Nic SHANNON (OIST)
Date & Time : Wednesday, February 15, 2023. 14:00～15:00
Place：Room 156, Main Research Bldg., Wako Campus, RIKEN
Title： Observing Magnetic Monopoles in Spin Ice via Electron Holography
Abstract：
While there is compelling evidence for the existence of magnetic monopoles in spin ice, the direct observation of a point-like source of magnetic field in these systems remains an open challenge. One promising approach is electron holography, which combines atomic-scale resolution with extreme sensitivity to magnetic vector potentials, through the Aharonov-Bohm effect.
Here we explore what holography can teach us about magnetic monopoles in spin ice, through experiments on artificial spin ice, and numerical simulations of pyrochlore spin ice [1]. In the case of artificial spin ice, we show that holograms can be used to measure local magnetic charge. For pyrochlore spin ice, we demonstrate that holographic experiments are capable of resolving both magnetic monopoles and their dynamics, including the emergence of electric fields associated with fluctuations of closed loops of spins.
These results establish that the observation of both magnetic monopoles and emergent electric fields in pyrochlore spin ice is a realistic possibility in an electron microscope with sufficiently-high phase resolution.
Committee Chair：Tetsuo HANAGURI (RIKEN)