Soft X-Ray Phase Nanomicroscopy of Micrometer-Thick Magnets

Imaging of nanoscale magnetic textures within extended material systems is of critical importance to both fundamental research and technological applications. While high-resolution magnetic imaging of thin nanoscale samples is well established with electron and soft x-ray microscopy, the extension to micrometer-thick systems currently requires hard x rays, which limits high-resolution imaging to rare-earth magnets. Here, we overcome this limitation by establishing soft x-ray magnetic imaging of micrometer-thick systems using the pre-edge phase x-ray magnetic circular dichroism signal, thus making possible the study of a wide range of magnetic materials. By performing dichroic spectroptychography, we demonstrate high spatial resolution imaging of magnetic samples up to <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mrow><a:mn>1.7</a:mn><a:mtext> </a:mtext><a:mtext> </a:mtext><a:mi mathvariant="normal">μ</a:mi><a:mrow><a:mi mathvariant="normal">m</a:mi></a:mrow></a:mrow></a:math> thick, an order of magnitude higher than conventionally possible with soft x-ray absorption-based techniques. We demonstrate the applicability of the technique by harnessing the pre-edge phase to image thick chiral helimagnets, and naturally occurring magnetite particles, gaining insight into their three-dimensional magnetic configuration. This new regime of magnetic imaging makes possible the study of extended non-rare-earth systems that have until now been inaccessible, including magnetic textures for future spintronic applications, non-rare-earth permanent magnets for energy harvesting, and the magnetic configuration of giant magnetofossils. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

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Publication Details

Journal
Physical Review X
Published
2024-08-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevx.14.031028
Citations
8
Primary Topic
Magnetic properties of thin films
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.70

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article

Soft X-Ray Phase Nanomicroscopy of Micrometer-Thick Magnets

Liao Chang, Jeffrey Neethirajan, G. Balakrishnan, Burkhard Kaulich et al.
8 citations
Physical Review X
Magnetic properties of thin films
2.70
article

Soft X-Ray Phase Nanomicroscopy of Micrometer-Thick Magnets

Liao Chang, Jeffrey Neethirajan, G. Balakrishnan, Burkhard Kaulich, R. J. Harrison, Luke Turnbull, Aleš Štefančič, S. València, Emilie Ringe, Aleš Hrabec, Zhaowen Pei, Rikako Yamamoto, Marisel Di Pietro Martínez, D. A. Mayoh, M. R. Vieira Ferreira, Claire Donnelly, Pengfei Xue, Majid Kazemian Abyaneh, Benedikt J. Daurer
article en
8 citations

Abstract

Imaging of nanoscale magnetic textures within extended material systems is of critical importance to both fundamental research and technological applications. While high-resolution magnetic imaging of thin nanoscale samples is well established with electron and soft x-ray microscopy, the extension to micrometer-thick systems currently requires hard x rays, which limits high-resolution imaging to rare-earth magnets. Here, we overcome this limitation by establishing soft x-ray magnetic imaging of micrometer-thick systems using the pre-edge phase x-ray magnetic circular dichroism signal, thus making possible the study of a wide range of magnetic materials. By performing dichroic spectroptychography, we demonstrate high spatial resolution imaging of magnetic samples up to <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mrow><a:mn>1.7</a:mn><a:mtext> </a:mtext><a:mtext> </a:mtext><a:mi mathvariant="normal">μ</a:mi><a:mrow><a:mi mathvariant="normal">m</a:mi></a:mrow></a:mrow></a:math> thick, an order of magnitude higher than conventionally possible with soft x-ray absorption-based techniques. We demonstrate the applicability of the technique by harnessing the pre-edge phase to image thick chiral helimagnets, and naturally occurring magnetite particles, gaining insight into their three-dimensional magnetic configuration. This new regime of magnetic imaging makes possible the study of extended non-rare-earth systems that have until now been inaccessible, including magnetic textures for future spintronic applications, non-rare-earth permanent magnets for energy harvesting, and the magnetic configuration of giant magnetofossils. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Physical Review XVol. 14(3)
Hiroshima University (JP), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) (BR), Peking University (CN), University of Cambridge (GB), Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (DE), Paul Scherrer Institute (CH), Diamond Light Source (GB), ETH Zurich (CH), University of Warwick (GB), Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (DE), Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (BR), Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (BR)
Diamond Light Source, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, International Max Planck Research School for Chemistry and Physics of Quantum Materials, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, IT tippkeskus EXCITE, H2020 European Research Council
Openalex Percentile: Top 9%
Magnetic properties of thin films
2.70
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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