Quantitative experimental determination of site-specific magnetic structures by transmitted electrons

• Published in: Nature communications 2013-01, Vol.4 (1), p.1395, Article 1395
• Main Authors: Wang, Z.Q., Zhong, X.Y., Yu, R., Cheng, Z.Y., Zhu, J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/301/357/997; 639/301/930/12; Electrons; Energy; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Spectrum analysis
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2323

Understanding magnetic materials at the nanoscale is important for the development of novel applications, but has been hampered by a lack of suitable experimental techniques. Here, the use of transmitted electrons permits the determination of atomic site-specific magnetic information. Understanding the magnetic structure of materials on a nanometre scale provides fundamental information in the development of novel applications. Here we show a site-specific electron energy-loss magnetic chiral dichroism method, first experimentally demonstrating that the use of transmitted electrons allows us to quantitatively determine atomic site-specific magnetic structure information on a nanometre scale. From one NiFe 2 O 4 nanograin in composite films, we extract its atomic site-specific magnetic circular dichroism spectra and achieve the quantitative magnetic structure information, such as site-specific total magnetic moments and orbital to spin magnetic moment ratios, by constructively selecting the specific dynamical diffraction conditions in electron energy-loss magnetic chiral dichroism experiments. The site-specific electron energy-loss magnetic chiral dichroism method shows its unique ability for solving the site-specific magnetic structure at nanoscale resolution, compared with X-ray magnetic circular dichroism and neutron diffraction. This work opens a door to meet the challenge of exploring the magnetic structures of magnetic materials at the nanoscale using transmitted electrons.