Atomic scale imaging of magnetic structures

The miniaturization of magnetic nanodevices is pushing the device limits to atomic scales.

This demands the urgent availability of characterization techniques capable to analyse the structure and magnetic properties of the materials with atomic resolution.

Achieving atomic resolution magnetic measurements in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) has been a long-standing challenge.

The technique of Electron magnetic circular dichroism (EMCD) has the potential to achieve this goal but has several critical challenges.

The aim of this project is to develop the EMCD technique with the goal to obtain magnetic measurements from single atomic columns. This project can be split into three parts.

Part 1 is related to the development of an experimental technique which will be capable of acquiring 5-dimensional datasets with atomic spatial resolution.

Part 2 is the development of data analysis workflow in Python to analyse the 5D datasets and extract the structural and magnetic information.

Part 3 is the application of the new technique to potential material systems such as magnetic skyrmions and magnetic tunnel junctions. The project will be completed in a period of three years.

The major experimental part of the project will be carried out at Ernst Ruska Center for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, Julich.

The development and availability of this technique to the electron microscopy community will have significant impact on the field of nanomagnetic characterization.