New technique enables magnetic patterns to be mapped in 3D
Mapping of the captured magnetisation domains (right, red-blue patterns) in a sample 20 nanometres thick that had been wound in two layers into a tube. The tube has a diameter of 5 microns and a height of 50 microns. © F. Kronast/HZB
An international collaboration has succeeded in using synchrotron light to detect and record the complex 3D magnetisation in wound magnetic layers. This technique could be important in the development of devices that are highly sensitive to magnetic fields, such as in medical diagnostics for example. Their results are published now in Nature Communications.
3D structures in materials and biological samples can be investigated today using X-ray tomography. This is done by recording images layer-by-layer and assembling them on a computer into a three-dimensional mapping. But so far there has been no comparable technique for imaging 3D magnetic structures on nm length scales. Now teams from HZB and the Institut für Festkörperphysik / Technische Universität Dresden in collaboration with research partners from institutions in California (1) have developed a technique with which this is possible.
Mapping of rolled-up magnetic samples
They studied the magnetisation in rolled-up tubular magnetic nanomembranes (nickel or cobalt-palladium) about two layers thick. To obtain a 3D mapping of the magnetisation in the tubes, the samples were illuminated with circularly polarized X-rays. Using the X-ray microscope at the Advanced Light Source and the X-ray Photoemission Electron Microscopy (XPEEM) beamline at BESSY II, the samples were slightly rotated for each new image so that a series of 2D images was created. “The polarised light penetrated the magnetic layers from different angles. Using XPEEM, we were not only able to measure the magnetic features at the surface, but also obtained additional information from the “shadow”, explains Florian Kronast, who is responsible for the XPEEM beamline at HZB.
3D reconstruction of magnetic patterns
In the end, the physicists were successful in reconstructing the magnetic features on the computer in three dimensions.
“These samples displayed structures not smaller than 75 nanometres. But with this method we should be able to see even smaller structures and obtain a resolution of 20 nanometres”, explains Florian Kronast. However, so far only electron holography could be considered for mapping magnetic domains of three-dimensional objects at the nanometre scale. This required very complicated sample preparation and the magnetisation could only be indirectly determined through the resulting distribution of the magnetic field. “Our process enables you to map the magnetisation in directly in 3D. Knowledge of the magnetisation is prerequisite for improving the sensitivity of magnetic field detectors.”
Sensors for weak magnetic fields
The new method could be of interest to anyone involved with extremely small magnetic features within small volumes, such as those developing more sensitive devices for medical imaging, for example. Procedures like magnetoencephalography depend on externally detecting very weak magnetic fields created by the electrical activity of individual nerve cells – using appropriately sensitive detectors.
To the publication: Retrieving spin textures on curved magnetic thin films with full-field soft X-ray microscopies. Robert Streubel, Florian Kronast,Peter Fischer, Dula Parkinson, Oliver G. Schmidt & Denys Makarov. Nature Communications 6,7612, doi:10.1038/ncomms8612
(1): Advanced Light Source/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Santa Cruz
- Magnetic imaging: Micro-flowers increase the local magnetic fieldMaterials with magnetic nanostructures have many potential applications such as in spintronics. To explore such materials, nanoscale magnetic-sensitive imaging techniques are very useful, but up to now only weak magnetic fields could be applied during the imaging process. Now an international collaboration led by Dr. Sergio Valencia, HZB, has developed an approach that overcomes this limitation. The team designed tiny magnetic flux concentrators (MFCs), into which the sample is placed. The geometry of the MFCs resembles a flower with a number of petals which focus the applied magnetic field into its center. This greatly expands the magnetic field range available during imaging, and so the range of magnetic systems that can be investigated. The micro-flowers, enhancing magnetic fields locally, can find application in different nanometric magnetic microscopy techniques.
- CIGS-perovskite tandem cell achieves record efficiency of 25.5 %A Berlin-based team from HZB and Center for the Science of Materials Berlin (CSMB) at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has set a new record for a tandem solar cell. Using a combination of a CIGS semiconductor layer and perovskite, along with several optimised intermediate layers, they were able to convert 25.5% of sunlight into electrical energy. The previous record for this combination of materials and this size of cell stood at 24.6%. The new record has been certified and is visible in the prestigious Solar Cell Efficiency Tables (the "Green Tables"), which serve as the definitive ledger for the global photovoltaic community.
- Disorder creates new properties in compound semiconductorsAn international research team has demonstrated that the intrinsic disorder of the compound semiconductor CuInSnS₄ can be exploited to influence its optical properties. While the atomic vibrations also sense the local disorder, their response is averaged over many different local environments and therefore appear isotropic, as expected for a cubic crystal. In contrast, the optical excitations, known as excitons, are much more sensitive to the local arrangement of atoms. Surprisingly, they show a direction-dependent optical response even though the average crystal structure is cubic. These findings shed new light on the relationship between disorder and material properties, opening up new options for targeted 'disorder engineering' in optoelectronic and photocatalytic devices.