Soft x-ray ptychography studies of nanoscale magnetic and structural correlations in thin SmCo{sub 5} films
- Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
- Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
- IFW Dresden, Institute for Metallic Materials, Helmholtzstr. 20, D-01069 Dresden (Germany)
High spatial resolution magnetic x-ray spectromicroscopy at x-ray photon energies near the cobalt L{sub 3} resonance was applied to probe an amorphous 50 nm thin SmCo{sub 5} film prepared by off-axis pulsed laser deposition onto an x-ray transparent 200 nm thin Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} membrane. Alternating gradient magnetometry shows a strong in-plane anisotropy and an only weak perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, which is confirmed by magnetic transmission soft x-ray microscopy images showing over a field of view of 10 μm a primarily stripe-like domain pattern but with local labyrinth-like domains. Soft x-ray ptychography in amplitude and phase contrast was used to identify and characterize local magnetic and structural features over a field of view of 1 μm with a spatial resolution of about 10 nm. There, the magnetic labyrinth domain patterns are accompanied by nanoscale structural inclusions that are primarily located in close proximity to the magnetic domain walls. Our analysis suggests that these inclusions are nanocrystalline Sm{sub 2}Co{sub 17} phases with nominally in-plane magnetic anisotropy.
- OSTI ID:
- 22591772
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 108, Issue 9; Other Information: (c) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Studies of SmCo5/Fe nanocomposite magnetic bilayers with magnetic soft x-ray transmission microscopy
Field driven ferromagnetic phase evolution originating from the domain boundaries in antiferromagnetically coupled perpendicular anitsotropy films