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Collective dynamics often play an important role in determining the stability of ground states for both naturally occurring materials and metamaterials. We studied the temperature dependent dynamics of antiferromagnetically ordered superdomains in a square artificial spin lattice using soft x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy. We observed an exponential slowing down of superdomain wall motion below the AF onset temperature, similar to the behavior of typical bulk antiferromagnets. Using a continuous time random walk model we show that these superdomain walls undergo low-temperature ballistic and high-temperature diffusive motions., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We report evidence of spontaneous formation of a heterogeneous network of superdomains in two-dimensional square artificial spin ice nanostructures in externally applied magnetic fields. The magnetic heterogeneity is locally disordered but has a zig-zag texture at longer length scales. Resonant coherent soft-x-ray scattering off such textures give rise to unique internal structure in Bragg peaks. Our result shows that the macroscopic magnetic texture is derived from the microscopic structure of the Dirac strings., Comment: Main text: 5 pages, 4 figures. Supplemental: 13 pages, 11 figures

We report on WIMP search results in the XENON100 detector using a non-relativistic effective field theory approach. The data from science run II (34 kg $\times$ 224.6 live days) was re-analyzed, with an increased recoil energy interval compared to previous analyses, ranging from $(6.6 - 240)~\mathrm{keV_\mathrm{nr}}$. The data is found to be compatible with the background-only hypothesis. We present 90% confidence level exclusion limits on the coupling constants of WIMP-nucleon effective operators using a binned profile likelihood method. We also consider the case of inelastic WIMP scattering, where incident WIMPs may up-scatter to a higher mass state, and set exclusion limits on this model as well.

We report direct evidence that magnetically charged superdomain walls form spontaneously in two dimensional square artificial spin ice nanostructures in response to external magnetic fields. These extended magnetic defects were revealed by the development of internal structure, which varies as a function of applied magnetic field, within the Bragg peaks of resonant soft x-ray magnetic scattering patterns. Magnetically charged superdomain walls extend over tens of lattice sites and do not necessarily align with the applied field. Our results illustrate a novel approach to detect hierarchical magnetic structures within spin textures., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures

We have imaged magnetization textures of permalloy films patterned into Penrose P2 tilings (P2T) using scanning electron microscopy with polarization analysis (SEMPA). P2T film segments have near-uniform, bipolar magnetization, similar to artificial spin ices, but with asymmetric vertex coordination that induces a more complex spin ice behavior mediated by exchange interactions in vertex domain walls. Numerical simulations including long-range dipole interactions agree with SEMPA images of as-grown P2T, and predict a ferromagnetic ground state for a 2D P2T lattice of classical Ising spins., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures; submitted to Physical Review Letters, December 30, 2014

This Technical Memorandum documents the results from the Materials on International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) series involving fluorinated polyimide films analyzed at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. These films may be used in thermal control, sunshield, solar sail, solar concentrator, and other lightweight polymer film applications. Results include postflight structural integrity, visual observations, determination of atomic oxygen erosion yield, and optical property changes as compared to preflight values.

The computational method described in this paper allows the calculation of the dielectric relaxation strength of an amorphous polymer based solely upon its chemical structure. The 4,4' oxydiphthalic anhydride (ODPA) dianhydride and bis-aminophenoxybenzene (APB) diamine based polyimides, (beta-CN) APB-ODPA and APB-ODPA were studied. Amorphous cells were constructed and then poled using molecular dynamics. Dielectric relaxation strengths of Delta(epsilon) = 17.8 for (beta-CN) APB-ODPA and Delta(epsilon) = 7.7 for APB-ODPA were predicted. These values are in excellent agreement with the experimental values. It was found that both the pendant nitrile dipole and the backbone anhydride residue dipole make significant contributions to the polyimides dielectric response. Specifically, it was shown that the difference in the magnitude of the dielectric relaxations is directly attributable to the nitrile dipole. The size of the relaxations indicate an absence of cooperative dipolar motions, The model was used to explain these results in terms of the average orientation of the nitrile and anhydride dipoles to within 51 deg. and 63 deg., respectively, of the applied electric field.