Magnetic circular dichroism in EELS: Towards 10 nm resolution

TL;DR

This paper presents a new EMCD experimental setup that significantly enhances signal strength and spatial resolution, enabling magnetic circular dichroism detection at approximately 30 nm scale in electron microscopy.

Contribution

The study introduces a simplified analysis method and demonstrates a tenfold increase in signal strength, advancing EMCD techniques for nanoscale magnetic investigations.

Findings

Signal increased by an order of magnitude

Achieved spatial resolution of about 30 nm

Demonstrated potential for nanoscale magnetic studies

Abstract

We describe a new experimental setup for the detection of magnetic circular dichroism with fast electrons (EMCD). As compared to earlier findings the signal is an order of magnitude higher, while the probed area could be significantly reduced, allowing a spatial resolution of the order of 30 nm. A simplified analysis of the experimental results is based on the decomposition of the Mixed Dynamic Form Factor S(q,q',E) into a real part related to the scalar product and an imaginary part related to the vector product of the scattering vectors q and q'. Following the recent detection of chiral electronic transitions in the electron microscope the present experiment is a crucial demonstration of the potential of EMCD for nanoscale investigations.