RESUMO
We have designed, fabricated and tested a robust superconducting ratchet device based on topologically frustrated spin ice nanomagnets. The device is made of a magnetic Co honeycomb array embedded in a superconducting Nb film. This device is based on three simple mechanisms: (i) the topology of the Co honeycomb array frustrates in-plane magnetic configurations in the array yielding a distribution of magnetic charges which can be ordered or disordered with in-plane magnetic fields, following spin ice rules; (ii) the local vertex magnetization, which consists of a magnetic half vortex with two charged magnetic Néel walls; (iii) the interaction between superconducting vortices and the asymmetric potentials provided by the Néel walls. The combination of these elements leads to a superconducting ratchet effect. Thus, superconducting vortices driven by alternating forces and moving on magnetic half vortices generate a unidirectional net vortex flow. This ratchet effect is independent of the distribution of magnetic charges in the array.
RESUMO
Magnetization reversal processes have been analyzed by Magnetic Force Microscopy in dense arrays of Co bars with well defined shape anisotropy and strong magnetostatic interactions. Two different geometries have been used: rectangular and rhombic so that the sign of dipolar interactions between adjacent chains of bars is changed from antiferromagnetic (rectangular array) to ferromagnetic (rhombic array), having a profound influence on the shape of a nucleus of inversion at the magnetization reversal.
