A transmission electron microscope study of Néel skyrmion magnetic textures in multilayer thin film systems with large interfacial chiral interaction.

Skyrmions in ultrathin ferromagnetic metal (FM)/heavy metal (HM) multilayer systems produced by conventional sputtering methods have recently generated huge interest due to their applications in the field of spintronics. The sandwich structure with two correctly-chosen heavy metal layers provides an additive interfacial exchange interaction which promotes domain wall or skyrmion spin textures that are Néel in character and with a fixed chirality. Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a high resolution method ideally suited to quantitatively image such chiral magnetic configurations. When allied with physical and chemical TEM analysis of both planar and cross-sectional samples, key length scales such as grain size and the chiral variation of the magnetisation variation have been identified and measured. We present data showing the importance of the grain size (mostly < 10 nm) measured from direct imaging and its potential role in describing observed behaviour of isolated skyrmions (diameter < 100 nm). In the latter the region in which the magnetization rotates is measured to be around 30 nm. Such quantitative information on the multiscale magnetisation variations in the system is key to understanding and exploiting the behaviour of skyrmions for future applications in information storage and logic devices.

Observation of Localized Vibrational Modes of Graphene Nanodomes by Inelastic Atom Scattering.

Inelastic helium atom scattering (HAS) is suitable to determine low-energy (few meV) vibrations spatially localized on structures in the nanometer range. This is illustrated for the nanodomes that appear often on graphene (Gr) epitaxially grown on single crystal metal surfaces. The nature of the inelastic losses observed in Gr/Ru(0001) and Gr/Cu/Ru(0001) has been clarified by intercalation of Cu below the Gr monolayer, which decouples the Gr layer from the Ru substrate and changes substantially the out-of-plane, flexural phonon dispersion of epitaxial Gr, while maintaining the nanodomes and their localized vibrations. He diffraction proves that the Cu-intercalated Gr layer is well ordered structurally, while scanning tunneling microscopy reveals the persistence of the (slightly modified) periodic array of Gr nanodomes. A simple model explains the order of magnitude of the energy losses associated with the Gr nanodomes and their size dependence. The dispersionless, low-energy phonon branches may radically alter the transport of heat in intercalated Gr.

Vectorial Kerr magnetometer for simultaneous and quantitative measurements of the in-plane magnetization components.

A vectorial magneto-optic Kerr effect (v-MOKE) setup with simultaneous and quantitative determination of the two in-plane magnetization components is described. The setup provides both polarization rotations and reflectivity changes at the same time for a given sample orientation with respect to a variable external magnetic field, as well as allowing full angular studies. A classical description based on the Jones formalism is used to calculate the setup's properties. The use of different incoming light polarizations and/or MOKE geometries, as well as the errors due to misalignment and solutions are discussed. To illustrate the capabilities of the setup a detailed study of a model four-fold anisotropy system is presented. Among others, the setup allows to study the angular dependence of the hysteresis phenomena, remanences, critical fields, and magnetization reversal processes, as well as the accurate determination of the easy and hard magnetization directions, domain wall orientations, and magnetic anisotropies.

Helium, neon and argon diffraction from Ru(0001).

We present an experimental and theoretical study of He, Ne and Ar diffraction from the Ru(0001) surface. Close-coupling calculations were performed to estimate the corrugation function and the potential well depth in the atom-surface interaction in all three cases. DFT (density functional theory) calculations, including van der Waals dispersion forces, were used to validate the close-coupling results and to further analyze the experimental results. Our DFT calculations indicate that, in the incident energy range 20-150 meV, anticorrugating effects are present in the case of He and Ar diffraction, whereas normal corrugation is observed with Ne beams.