Toroidal Order in Magnetic Metamaterials

Book excerpt: The scope of this work is to provide an extensive experimental investigation of ferrotoroidicity, the most recently established type of ferroic order that is based on the uniform unit-cell-sized alignment of magnetic whirls. This is achieved by transferring basic spin configurations pertinent for the emergence of toroidal order to mesoscopic length scales. An engineering of and access to the system's magnetic degrees of freedom is made possible by using nanomagnetic arrays as model systems. The work revealsmicroscopic and macroscopic aspects of toroidally ordered matter beyond the reach of natural materials.