Magnetic correlations in artificial spin systems
In physics, frustration refers to a situation in which not all interactions can be satisfied simultaneously. Frustrated magnetism often occurs in spin systems with competing interactions and leads to a multitude of interesting phenomena such as highly-degenerate ground states and ice-like fluctuations. Artificial spin systems, built from lattices of thermally-fluctuating nanomagnets, can be used to study the effect of frustration on magnetic properties. In this talk, I will discuss how to design and manufacture artificial spin systems, and how to characterise the emergent magnetic correlations and long-range ordered phases using large-scale facilities available at the Paul Scherrer Institute (Villigen, Switzerland).