Artificial spin ices are metamaterials consisting of coupled nanomagnets arranged on periodic and aperiodic lattices.
These systems have enabled the experimental investigation of a variety of phenomena such as frustration, emergent magnetic monopoles, and phase transitions. In addition, artificial spin ices show potential as reprogrammable magnonic crystals and have been studied for their fast dynamics. A variety of geometries have been explored, including quasicrystalline systems and 3D structures, as well as different magnetic materials to modify anisotropies and blocking temperatures.
For example, polymer magnetic composites comprising 2D lattices of droplets of solid-liquid phase change material, with each droplet containing a single magnetic dipole particle, form an artificial spin ice above the droplet melting point, and, after cooling, a spin glass state with low bulk remanence. Spontaneous emergence of 2D magnetic vortices was observed in such spin ices, which vortex geometries were correlated with the external bulk remanence.
Future work in this field includes further developments in fabrication and characterization methods, exploration of new geometries and material combinations, and potential applications in computation, data storage, and reconfigurable microwave circuits.
In 2021 a study demonstrated neuromorphic reservoir computing using artificial spin ice, solving a range of computational tasks using the complex magnetic dynamics of the artificial spin ice.
In 2022, another studied achieved an artificial  kagome spin ice which could potentially be used in the future for novel high-speed computers with low power consumption.