  Artificial spin ice has become a valuable tool for understanding magnetic
interactions on a microscopic level. The strength in the approach lies in the
ability of a synthetic array of nanoscale magnets to mimic crystalline
materials, composed of atomic magnetic moments. Unfortunately, these nanoscale
magnets, patterned from metal alloys, can show substantial variation in
relevant quantities such as coercive field, with deviations up to 6%. By
carefully studying the reversal process of artificial kagome ice, we can
directly measure the distribution of coercivities, and by switching from
disconnected islands to a connected structure, we find that the coercivity
distribution can achieve a deviation of only 3.3%. These narrow deviations
should allow the observation of behavior that mimics canonical spin-ice
materials more closely.
