Chirality in magnetic multilayers probed by the symmetry and the amplitude of dichroism in X-ray resonant magnetic scattering

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that X-ray resonant magnetic scattering (XRMS) is an effective, model-independent technique for directly characterizing the chirality, winding sense, and type of magnetic distributions in multilayer systems.

Contribution

It introduces XRMS as a straightforward, unambiguous, and versatile method to analyze chiral magnetic structures without prior magnetic parameter knowledge.

Findings

XRMS can determine the chirality and winding sense of magnetic distributions.

The method is applicable to systems with magnetic domains from nanometers to microns.

Prototypical multilayers with tailored chiralities validate the approach.

Abstract

Chirality in condensed matter is now a topic of the utmost importance because of its significant role in the understanding and mastering of a large variety of new fundamental physicals mechanisms. Versatile experimental approaches, capable to reveal easily the exact winding of order parameters are therefore essential. Here we report X-ray resonant magnetic scattering (XRMS) as a straightforward tool to identify directly the properties of chiral magnetic systems. We show that it can straight-forwardly and unambiguously determine the main characteristics of chiral magnetic distributions: i.e. its chiral nature, the quantitative winding sense (clockwise or counter-clockwise) and its type (N\'eel/cycloidal or Bloch/helical). This method is model-independent, does not require a-priori knowledge of magnetic parameters and can be applied to any system with magnetic domains ranging from few nanometers (wavelength limited) to several microns. By using prototypical multilayers with tailored magnetic chiralities based on the Co|Pt interface we illustrate the strength of this method.