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Magnetic vortex writing and local reversal seeding in artificial spin-vortex ice via all-optical and surface-probe control

Holly Holder1,*, Alexander J. Wright1, Alex Vanstone1, Troy Dion2,3,5, Xiaofei Xiao1, Kilian D. Stenning1,4, Tingjun Zheng1, Daniel Bromley1, Tobias Farchy1 et al.

Jack C. Gartside1,4,5,†, Rupert F. Oulton1, and Will R. Branford1,4

  • *Contact author: h.holder20@imperial.ac.uk
  • †Contact author: j.carter-gartside13@imperial.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. B 113, 184426 – Published 7 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ldgl-qbxb

Abstract

Artificial spin-vortex ice (ASVI) is a reconfigurable nanomagnetic metamaterial consisting of magnetic nanoislands tailored to support both Ising macrospin and vortex textures. ASVI has recently shown functional applications including reconfigurable magnonics and neuromorphic computing, where the introduction of vortex textures broadens functionality beyond conventional artificial spin ice, which only supports macrospin states. However, local control of writing vortex states in ASVI remains an open challenge. Here, we demonstrate techniques for field-free local magnetic vortex writing. We expand ASVI to support metastable macrospin, single-vortex, and double-vortex states. All-optical writing via focused laser illumination can write double-vortex textures, and surface-probe writing using an MFM tip can write single-vortex states. We leverage this writing to tailor and explore the reconfigurable energy landscape of ASVI, demonstrating programmable local seeding of avalanche-like reversal events. The writing techniques reported here expand the suite of nanomagnetic control techniques, with a host of future applications including fundamental studies of avalanche dynamics, physical memory, and direct writing of nanomagnetic ‘‘weights’’ in physical neuromorphic neural networks.

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Phys. Rev. B 113, 184426– Published 7 May, 2026
  • Received 5 June 2025
  • Revised 4 March 2026
  • Accepted 26 March 2026
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