Angular anisotropy landscape of vortex ensembles in polarized small-angle neutron scattering

TL;DR

This paper classifies the symmetry and anisotropy patterns in polarized small-angle neutron scattering from nanoparticle vortex ensembles, providing a robust analytical framework for interpreting experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a symmetry-resolved classification scheme for vortex-induced scattering patterns, based on a linear vortex model and analytical expressions, applicable to experimental data interpretation.

Findings

Four distinct symmetry regimes identified in scattering patterns.

Analytical boundaries for symmetry regimes derived.

Robustness of symmetry regions confirmed with nonlinear vortex profiles.

Abstract

We present a symmetry-resolved classification of two-dimensional spin-flip small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) patterns arising from dilute ensembles of spherical nanoparticles hosting magnetic vortex states. Based on a linear vortex ansatz with an axially symmetric distribution of vortex axes and the corresponding analytical expression for the orientationally averaged spin-flip SANS cross section, we show that the angular scattering patterns organize into four distinct symmetry regimes: a four-fold anisotropy corresponding to coherent field-aligned magnetization, vertical and horizontal two-fold anisotropies associated with aligned and isotropically distributed vortex ensembles, and an isotropic ring-like condition separating the two two-fold regimes. The corresponding symmetry boundaries are obtained analytically and define a compact symmetry landscape in the parameter space of vortex amplitude and vortex-axis distribution width. Comparison with a nonlinear vortex profile shows that these symmetry regions are robust with respect to the detailed radial structure of the vortex core. The angular anisotropies are therefore governed primarily by rotational symmetry and by the statistical distribution of vortex axes, providing a compact and model-transparent classification framework of experimental polarized SANS data.