Magneto-optical Kerr Effect Studies of Square Artificial Spin Ice

We report a magneto-optical Kerr effect study of the collective magnetic response of artificial square spin ice, a lithographically-defined array of single-domain ferromagnetic islands. We find that the anisotropic inter-island interactions lead to a non-monotonic angular dependence of the array coercive field. Comparisons with micromagnetic simulations indicate that the two perpendicular sublattices exhibit distinct responses to island edge roughness, which clearly influence the magnetization reversal process. Furthermore, such comparisons demonstrate that disorder associated with roughness in the island edges plays a hitherto unrecognized but essential role in the collective behavior of these systems.