Quantitative analysis of shadow X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism Photo-Emission Electron Microscopy

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantitative framework for Shadow XMCD-PEEM, enabling detailed analysis of 3D magnetic textures by simulating contrast and evaluating instrumental effects on imaging quality.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation method for contrast in Shadow XMCD-PEEM and discusses instrumental factors affecting resolution and contrast, advancing the quantitative analysis of 3D magnetic structures.

Findings

Successful comparison with experimental data

Simulation of contrast for arbitrary micromagnetic states

Impact of instrumental settings on image quality

Abstract

Shadow X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism Photo-Emission Electron Microscopy (XMCD-PEEM) is a recent technique, in which the photon intensity in the shadow of an object lying on a surface, may be used to gather information about the three-dimensional magnetization texture inside the object. Our purpose here is to lay the basis of a quantitative analysis of this technique. We first discuss the principle and implementation of a method to simulate the contrast expected from an arbitrary micromagnetic state. Text book examples and successful comparison with experiments are then given. Instrumental settings are finally discussed, having an impact on the contrast and spatial resolution : photon energy, microscope extraction voltage and plane of focus, microscope background level, electric-field related distortion of three-dimensional objects, Fresnel diffraction or photon scattering.