Abstract
When a scanning tunneling microscope is operated at tip-target distances ranging from few nanometers to few tens of nanometers (Fowler-Nordheim or field emission regime), a new electronic system appears, consisting of electrons that escape the tip-target junction. If the target is ferromagnetic, this electronic system is spin polarized. Here, we use these spin polarized electrons to image magnetic domains in thin films. As two components of the spin polarization vector are detected simultaneously, the imaging of the local magnetization has vectorial character. The tip is nonmagnetic, i.e., the magnetic state of the target is not perturbed by the act of probing. We expect this spin polarized technology, which scales down scanning electron microscopy with polarization analysis by bringing the source of primary electrons in close proximity to the target, to find its main applications in the imaging of noncollinear, weakly stable spin excitations.
Highlights
Such a technology exists from the very dawn of scanning probe methods: it is called the topografiner and was invented by Young et al.17 It uses a regime of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM), which is called the FowlerNordheim or field emission regime.18 In the Fowler-Nordheim regime, the tip is retracted to distances ranging from nanometers to tens of nanometers so that the direct tunneling between the tip and the target is entirely suppressed
When a scanning tunneling microscope is operated at tip-target distances ranging from few nanometers to few tens of nanometers (FowlerNordheim or field emission regime), a new electronic system appears, consisting of electrons that escape the tip-target junction
We provide the experimental observation of magnetic domains in thin magnetic films using SFEMPA
Summary
Such a technology exists from the very dawn of scanning probe methods: it is called the topografiner and was invented by Young et al.17 It uses a regime of STM, which is called the FowlerNordheim or field emission regime.18 In the Fowler-Nordheim regime, the tip is retracted to distances ranging from nanometers to tens of nanometers so that the direct tunneling between the tip and the target is entirely suppressed. We use these spin polarized electrons to image magnetic domains in thin films.
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