Technique for 3D mapping of magnetic patterns successfully tested

An international team of researchers has found a way of using synchrotron light to detect and record magnetic patterns in 3D.

Led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, the scientists studied magnetisation in rolled-up tubular magnetic nanomembranes about two layers thick. Samples were illuminated with circularly polarised X-rays via X-ray Photoemission Electron Microscopy beamline and slightly rotated for each new image, allowing a series of 2D images to be created.

This made it possible to reconstruct the magnetic features on the computer in three dimensions. The structures were 75 nanometres at their smallest, but this method could make it possible to see even smaller structures and obtain a resolution of 20 nanometres.

Florian Kronast, who is responsible for the XPEEM beamline at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, said: "Our process enables you to map the magnetisation in directly in 3D. Knowledge of the magnetisation is prerequisite for improving the sensitivity of magnetic field detectors."

The method could be useful in the development of devices that are highly sensitive to magnetic fields, such in the creation of more sensitive devices for medical imaging.

Procedures like magnetoencephalography depend on externally detecting weak magnetic fields created by the electrical activity of individual nerve cells, creating a need for sensitive detectors.