Spin ice and other frustrated magnets on the pyrochlore lattice

The recent identification of the dysprosium titanate compound Dy2Ti2O7 as a "Spin ice", i.e. the spin analog of regular entropic ice of Pauling, has created considerable excitement. The ability to manipulate spins using magnetic fields gives a unique advantage over regular ice in these systems, and has been used to study the recovery of entropy. Predicted magnetization plateaus have been observed, testing the underlying model consisting of a competition between short-ranged super exchange, and long-ranged dipolar interactions between spins. I discuss other compounds that are possibly spin ice like: Ho2Ti2O7, and the two stannates Ho2Sn2O7, Dy2Sn2O7. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.