The energy-relaxation pathway in artificial spin ice structures refers to the series of individual moment reorientations the system undergoes as it relaxes from an initial state to a final low-energy state. The probability of the artificial spin ice structure reaching a ground state depends on the energy of the intermediate states as approximated by an Arrhenius-type relation. In this work, we report that by modifying the geometry of artificial square-ice structures, we can influence the probability of observing the ground state in different configurations. Our findings are supported by dipolar energy calculations for various energy-relaxation pathways and the corresponding experimental data obtained by magnetic force microscopy.

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• Analog computation
• Dipolar interaction
• Probabilistic computing
• Spintronics
• Artificial spin ice
• Magnetic nanoparticles
• Nanostructures
• Square lattice