A new look on the two-dimensional Ising model: thermal artificial spins

We present a direct experimental investigation of the thermal ordering in an artificial analogue of an asymmetric two-dimensional Ising system composed of a rectangular array of nano-fabricated magnetostatically interacting islands. During fabrication and below a critical thickness of the magnetic material the islands are thermally fluctuating and thus the system is able to explore its phase space. Above the critical thickness the islands freeze-in resulting in an arrested thermalized state for the array. Determining the magnetic state we demonstrate a genuine artificial two-dimensional Ising system which can be analyzed in the context of nearest neighbor interactions.