The flow of magnetic charge carriers (dubbed magnetic monopoles) through frustrated spin ice lattices, governed simply by Coulombic forces, represents a new direction in electromagnetism. Artificial spin ice nanoarrays realise this effect at room temperature, where the magnetic charge is carried by domain walls. Control of domain wall path is one important element of utilizing this new medium. By imaging the transit of domain walls across different connected 2D honeycomb structures we contribute an important aspect which will enable that control to be realized. Although apparently equivalent paths are presented to a domain wall as it approaches a Y-shaped vertex from a bar parallel to the field, we observe a stark non-random path distribution, which we attribute to the chirality of the magnetic charges. These observations are supported by detailed statistical modelling and micromagnetic simulations. The identification of chiral control to magnetic charge path selectivity invites analogy with spintronics.

Breakdown of the ice rule in artificial spin-ice nanostructures results in magnetic monopole defects with zero magnetic moment. Such defects exist during the magnetic switching process in some nanostructures and yet are absent in other apparently similar arrays having the same geometry and made from the same material components. One explanation proposed for this discrepancy is that it is due to the variation of disorder across samples, with monopole defect formation occuring only in highly disordered samples. Although disorder can indeed play a role in the determination of monopole density, in this paper we show, by experiment and simulation, that in samples of similar, low disorder, the factor controlling the nature of magnetic switching is whether the domain walls are in the transverse wall regime or in the vortex wall regime. This work illustrates that monopole formation can be controlled by intrinsic micromagnetic behaviour as well as by extrinsic quenched disorder.

The dynamic behavior of magnetic domain walls incident upon a Y-shaped junction between three nanowires is explored. Details in the micromagnetic structure of the domain wall and the local spin texture at a vertex result in a complex interaction which ultimately determines the propagation direction of the domain wall following the vertex. This interaction has been explored through both magneto-optical Kerr effect experiments and micromagnetic simulations on single-vertex structures. Differences in the micromagnetic structure of incident domain walls in the dynamic regime have a significant influence on the interaction. We observe an oscillatory path selection with increasing domain wall propagation distance preceding the vertex. Our analysis shows that this behavior originates from cyclic reversals of the transverse domain wall chirality due to Walker breakdown processes.

Here we describe the development of the MALTS software which is a generalized tool that simulates Lorentz Transmission Electron Microscopy (LTEM) contrast of magnetic nanostructures. Complex magnetic nanostructures typically have multiple stable domain structures. MALTS works in conjunction with the open access micromagnetic software Object Oriented Micromagnetic Framework or MuMax. Magnetically stable trial magnetization states of the object of interest are input into MALTS and simulated LTEM images are output. MALTS computes the magnetic and electric phases accrued by the transmitted electrons via the Aharonov-Bohm expressions.Transfer and envelope functions are used to simulate the progression of the electron wave through the microscope lenses. The final contrast image due to these effects is determined by Fourier Optics. Similar approaches have been used previously for simulations of specific cases of LTEM contrast. The novelty here is the integration with micromagnetic codes via a simple user interface enabling the computation of the contrast from any structure. The output from MALTS is in good agreement with both experimental data and published LTEM simulations. A widely-available generalized code for the analysis of Lorentz contrast is a much needed step towards the use of LTEM as a standardized laboratory technique.

Magnetic charge is carried through nanowire networks by domain walls, and the micromagnetic structure of a domain wall provides an opportunity to manipulate its movement. We have shown previously that magnetic monopole defects exist in artificial spin ice (ASI) and result from two bar switching at a vertex. To create and manipulate monopole defects and indeed magnetic charge in general, path selectivity of the domain wall at a vertex is required. We have recently shown that in connected ASI structures, transverse wall chirality (or topology) determines wall path direction, but a mechanism known as Walker breakdown, where a wall mutates into a wall of opposite chirality partially destroys selectivity. Recently it has been claimed that in isolated Y-shaped junctions that support vortex walls, selectivity is entirely determined by chirality (or topology), the suggestion being that vortex wall chirality is robust in the Walker breakdown process. Here we demonstrate that in Yshaped junctions, magnetic switching in the important topologically protected regime exists only for a narrow window of field and bar geometry, and that it will be challenging to access this regime in fielddriven ASI. This work has implications for the wider field of magnetic charge manipulation for high density memory storage.