67 research outputs found
Nuclear resonant surface diffraction
Nuclear resonant x-ray diffraction in grazing incidence geometry is used to
determine the lateral magnetic configuration in a one-dimensional lattice of
ferromagnetic nanostripes. During magnetic reversal, strong nuclear
superstructure diffraction peaks appear in addition to the electronic ones due
to an antiferromagnetic order in the nanostripe lattice. We show that the
analysis of the angular distribution of the resonantly diffracted x-rays
together with the time-dependence of the coherently diffracted nuclear signal
reveals surface spin structures with very high sensitivity. This novel
scattering technique provides a unique access to laterally correlated spin
configurations in magnetically ordered nanostructures and, in perspective, also
to their dynamics
Spin precession mapping at ferromagnetic resonance via nuclear resonant scattering
We probe the spin dynamics in a thin magnetic film at ferromagnetic resonance
by nuclear resonant scattering of synchrotron radiation at the 14.4 keV
resonance of Fe. The precession of the magnetization leads to an
apparent reduction of the magnetic hyperfine field acting at the Fe
nuclei. The spin dynamics is described in a stochastic relaxation model adapted
to the ferromagnetic resonance theory by Smit and Beljers to model the decay of
the excited nuclear state. From the fits of the measured data the shape of the
precession cone of the spins is determined. Our results open a new perspective
to determine magnetization dynamics in layered structures with very high depth
resolution by employing ultrathin isotopic probe layers
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Direct observation of stochastic domain-wall depinning in magnetic nanowires
The stochastic field-driven depinning of a domain wall pinned at a notch in a magnetic nanowire is directly observed using magnetic X-ray microscopy with high lateral resolution down to 15 nm. The depinning-field distribution in Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} nanowires considerably depends on the wire width and the notch depth. The difference in the multiplicity of domain-wall types generated in the vicinity of a notch is responsible for the observed dependence of the stochastic nature of the domain wall depinning field on the wire width and the notch depth. Thus the random nature of the domain wall depinning process is controllable by an appropriate design of the nanowire
Time-Resolved X-ray Microscopy of Spin-Torque-Induced Magnetic Vortex Gyration
Time-resolved X-ray microscopy is used to image the influence of alternating
high-density currents on the magnetization dynamics of ferromagnetic vortices.
Spin-torque induced vortex gyration is observed in micrometer-sized permalloy
squares. The phases of the gyration in structures with different chirality are
compared to an analytical model and micromagnetic simulations, considering both
alternating spinpolarized currents and the current's Oersted field. In our case
the driving force due to spin-transfer torque is about 70% of the total
excitation while the remainder originates from the current's Oersted field.
This finding has implications to magnetic storage devices using spin-torque
driven magnetization switching and domain-wall motion.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
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Time-resolved imaging of current-induced domain-wall oscillations
Current-induced domain-wall dynamics is investigated via high-resolution soft x-ray transmission microscopy by a stroboscopic pump-and-probe measurement scheme at a temporal resolution of 200 ps. A 180{sup o} domain wall in a restoring potential of a permalloy microstructure is displaced from its equilibrium position by nanosecond current pulses leading to oscillations with velocities up to 325 m/s. The motion of the wall is described with an analytical model of a rigid domain wall in a nonharmonic potential allowing one to determine the mass of the domain wall. We show that Oersted fields dominate the domain-wall dynamics in our geometry
Observation of coupled vortex gyrations by 70-ps-time- and 20-nm-space-resolved full-field magnetic transmission soft x-ray microscopy
We employed time- and space-resolved full-field magnetic transmission soft x-ray microscopy to observe vortex-core gyrations in a pair of dipolar-coupled vortex-state Permalloy (Ni80 Fe20) disks. The 70 ps temporal and 20 nm spatial resolution of the microscope enabled us to simultaneously measure vortex gyrations in both disks and to resolve the phases and amplitudes of both vortex-core positions. We observed their correlation for a specific vortex-state configuration. This work provides a robust and direct method of studying vortex gyrations in dipolar-coupled vortex oscillators.open282
Quantum Imaging with Incoherently Scattered Light from a Free-Electron Laser
The advent of accelerator-driven free-electron lasers (FEL) has opened new
avenues for high-resolution structure determination via diffraction methods
that go far beyond conventional x-ray crystallography methods. These techniques
rely on coherent scattering processes that require the maintenance of
first-order coherence of the radiation field throughout the imaging procedure.
Here we show that higher-order degrees of coherence, displayed in the intensity
correlations of incoherently scattered x-rays from an FEL, can be used to image
two-dimensional objects with a spatial resolution close to or even below the
Abbe limit. This constitutes a new approach towards structure determination
based on incoherent processes, including Compton scattering, fluorescence
emission or wavefront distortions, generally considered detrimental for imaging
applications. Our method is an extension of the landmark intensity correlation
measurements of Hanbury Brown and Twiss to higher than second-order paving the
way towards determination of structure and dynamics of matter in regimes where
coherent imaging methods have intrinsic limitations
Electronic Quantum Coherence in Glycine Molecules Probed with Ultrashort X-ray Pulses in Real Time
Structural changes in nature and technology are driven by charge carrier
motion. A process such as charge-directed reactivity that can be operational in
radiobiology is more efficient, if energy transfer and charge motion proceeds
along well-defined quantum mechanical pathways keeping the coherence and
minimizing dissipation. The open question is: do long-lived electronic quantum
coherences exist in complex molecules? Here, we use x-rays to create and
monitor electronic wave packets in the amino acid glycine. The outgoing
photoelectron wave leaves behind a positive charge formed by a superposition of
quantum mechanical eigenstates. Delayed x-ray pulses track the induced
electronic coherence through the photoelectron emission from the sequential
double photoionization processes. The observed sinusoidal modulation of the
detected electron yield as a function of time clearly demonstrates that
electronic quantum coherence is preserved for at least 25 femtoseconds in this
molecule of biological relevance. The surviving coherence is detected via the
dominant sequential double ionization channel, which is found to exhibit a
phase shift as a function of the photoelectron energy. The experimental results
agree with advanced ab-initio simulations.Comment: 54 pages, 11 figure
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