I10-Beamline for Advanced Dichroism
|
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[15211, 16099]
Open Access
Abstract: Elemental tin in the α‐phase is an intriguing member of the family of topological quantum materials. In thin films, with decreasing thickness, α‐Sn transforms from a 3D topological Dirac semimetal (TDS) to a 2D topological insulator (TI). Getting access to and making use of its topological surface states is challenging and requires interfacing to a magnetically ordered material. Herein, the successful epitaxial growth of α‐Sn thin films on Co, forming the core of a spin‐valve structure, is reported. Time‐ and element‐selective ferromagnetic resonance experiments are conducted to investigate the presence of spin pumping through the spin‐valve structure. A rigorous statistical analysis of the experimental data using a model based on the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert–Slonczewski equation is applied. A strong exchange coupling contribution is found, however no unambiguous proof for spin pumping. Nevertheless, the incorporation of α‐Sn into a spin valve remains a promising approach given its simplicity as an elemental TI and its room‐temperature application potential.
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May 2021
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I10-Beamline for Advanced Dichroism
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[19996]
Abstract: We report a comprehensive study on the magnetic ground state of
La
1.5
Ca
0.5
Co
O
4
combining single crystal neutron diffraction and resonant magnetic x-ray scattering at the
Co
L
2
,
3
edges. Three single-crystal samples obtained from the same boule were investigated exhibiting magnetic phase transitions from a high-temperature paramagnetic phase to an antiferromagnetic phase at
T
N
≈
52
K
. Single crystal neutron diffraction reveals that the crystal structure at room temperature shows an orthorhombic
A
-centered lattice but with
a
and
b
axes almost equal in length. The structural phase transition (charge-ordering-like) from the parent tetragonal cell takes place above 523 K into the space group
A
2
m
m
where two nonequivalent compressed and expanded
Co
O
6
octahedra are ordered showing a checkerboard pattern in the
a
b
plane. The charge segregation between the nonequivalent Co sites is about 0.4(1) electrons. Resonant magnetic x-ray reflections indexed as
(
1
/
4
,
1
/
4
,
0
)
t
,
(
1
/
4
,
1
/
4
,
1
)
t
, and
(
1
/
4
,
1
/
4
,
1
/
2
)
t
in the parent tetragonal cell were observed at low temperature at the
Co
L
2
,
3
-edge energy range. The resonant spectral shape, with a noticeable absence of any resonant enhancement at the
Co
L
2
edge, indicates that only
Co
2
+
-like ions participate in the magnetic ordering. The polarization analysis discloses that the orientation of Co magnetic moments is the same for the three magnetic orders and they are long-range ordered along the diagonal in the
a
b
plane of the parent tetragonal cell with a slight tilt in the
c
axis. Despite the onset temperatures for the three resonant magnetic reflections being the same,
≈
55
K
, different thermal behavior is observed between
(
1
/
4
,
1
/
4
,
1
/
2
)
t
and
(
1
/
4
,
1
/
4
,
L
)
t
(
L
=
integer
) reflections whose intensities maximize at different temperatures, suggesting the coexistence of two magnetic arrangements. Moreover, the intensity of the
(
1
/
4
,
1
/
4
,
1
/
2
)
t
magnetic reflection is at least ten times larger than that of the
(
1
/
4
,
1
/
4
,
L
)
t
(
L
=
integer
)
ones. On the other hand\, neutron diffraction measurements only detect a single type of antiferromagnetic ordering following the propagation vector
k
=
(
1
/
4
,
1
/
4
,
1
/
2
)
t
that involves half of the Co atoms in the unit cell. We conclude that the bulk magnetic order in
La
1.5
Ca
0.5
Co
O
4
corresponds then to this propagation vector
k
=
(
1
/
4
,
1
/
4
,
1
/
2
)
t
while
(
1
/
4
,
1
/
4
,
0
)
t
and
(
1
/
4
,
1
/
4
,
1
)
t
magnetic reflections correspond to a minority magnetic phase that must be due to changes in the oxygen stoichiometry near the surface.
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May 2021
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I10-Beamline for Advanced Dichroism
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Xiaoqian
Zhang
,
Qiangsheng
Lu
,
Wenqing
Liu
,
Wei
Niu
,
Jiabao
Sun
,
Jacob
Cook
,
Mitchel
Vaninger
,
Paul F.
Miceli
,
David J.
Singh
,
Shang-Wei
Lian
,
Tay-Rong
Chang
,
Xiaoqing
He
,
Jun
Du
,
Liang
He
,
Rong
Zhang
,
Guang
Bian
,
Yongbing
Xu
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[22532]
Open Access
Abstract: While the discovery of two-dimensional (2D) magnets opens the door for fundamental physics and next-generation spintronics, it is technically challenging to achieve the room-temperature ferromagnetic (FM) order in a way compatible with potential device applications. Here, we report the growth and properties of single- and few-layer CrTe2, a van der Waals (vdW) material, on bilayer graphene by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Intrinsic ferromagnetism with a Curie temperature (TC) up to 300 K, an atomic magnetic moment of ~0.21 𝜇B
μ
B
/Cr and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) constant (Ku) of 4.89 × 105 erg/cm3 at room temperature in these few-monolayer films have been unambiguously evidenced by superconducting quantum interference device and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism. This intrinsic ferromagnetism has also been identified by the splitting of majority and minority band dispersions with ~0.2 eV at Г point using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The FM order is preserved with the film thickness down to a monolayer (TC ~ 200 K), benefiting from the strong PMA and weak interlayer coupling. The successful MBE growth of 2D FM CrTe2 films with room-temperature ferromagnetism opens a new avenue for developing large-scale 2D magnet-based spintronics devices.
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May 2021
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I10-Beamline for Advanced Dichroism
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[23784, 23451]
Open Access
Abstract: Magnetic skyrmions are topologically non-trivial, swirling magnetization textures that form lattices in helimagnetic materials. These magnetic nanoparticles show promise as high efficiency next-generation information carriers, with dynamics that are governed by their topology. Among the many unusual properties of skyrmions is the tendency of their direction of motion to deviate from that of a driving force; the angle by which they diverge is a materials constant, known as the skyrmion Hall angle. In magnetic multilayer systems, where skyrmions often appear individually, not arranging themselves in a lattice, this deflection angle can be easily measured by tracing the real space motion of individual skyrmions. Here we describe a reciprocal space technique which can be used to determine the skyrmion Hall angle in the skyrmion lattice state, leveraging the properties of the skyrmion lattice under a shear drive. We demonstrate this procedure to yield a quantitative measurement of the skyrmion Hall angle in the room-temperature skyrmion system FeGe, shearing the skyrmion lattice with the magnetic field gradient generated by a single turn Oersted wire.
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May 2021
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I10-Beamline for Advanced Dichroism
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[20748]
Abstract: Over the past four years, the magnetism of 2D magnets has been extensively studied by the full arsenal of probing techniques. 2D magnets can be incorporated to form heterostructures with clean and sharp interfaces, which gives rise to exotic phenomena as a result of the interfacial proximity effect. Here we report a detailed study of the spin (ms) and orbital (ml) moments of an epitaxial (CrSb/Fe3GeTe2)6 superlattice. The synchrotron-radiation based x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) technique was performed to probe the microscopic magnetic properties of the superlattices in an elemental resolved manner. We unambiguously obtained a bulk-like moment of Fe3GeTe2 i.e., ms = 1.58 ± 0.2 μB/Fe and ml = 0.22 ± 0.02 μB/Fe. Future works to explore the tuning of the spin polarized band structure of 2D ferromagnetic superlattices will be of great interest and can have strong implications for both fundamental physics and the emerging spintronics technology.
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May 2021
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I10-Beamline for Advanced Dichroism
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[22157]
Open Access
Abstract: Tunnel junctions based on Fe storing globular proteins are an interesting class of biomolecular tunnel junctions due to their tunable Fe ion loading, symmetrical structure and thermal stability, and are therefore attractive to study the mechanisms of charge transport (CT) at the molecular level. This paper describes a temperature-induced change in the CT mechanism across junctions with large globular (∼25 nm in diameter) E2-proteins bioengineered with Fe-binding peptides from ferritin (E2-LFtn) to mineralise Fe ions in the form of iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) inside the protein's cavity. The iron oxide NPs provide accessible energy states that support high CT rates and shallow activation barriers. Interestingly, the CT mechanism changes abruptly, but reversibly, from incoherent tunnelling (which is thermally activated) to coherent tunnelling (which is activationless) across the E2-LFtn-based tunnel junctions with the highest Fe ion loading at a temperature of 220–240 K. During this transition the current density across the junctions increases by a factor of 13 at an applied voltage of V = −0.8 V. X-ray absorption spectroscopy indicates that the iron oxide NPs inside the E2-LFtn cages undergo a reversible phase transition; this phase transition opens up new a tunnelling pathway changing the mechanism of CT from thermally activated to activationless tunnelling despite the large size of the E2-LFtn and associated distance for tunnelling.
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Mar 2021
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I10-Beamline for Advanced Dichroism
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Abstract: Nanoparticles that combine several magnetic phases offer wide perspectives for cutting edge applications because of the high modularity of their magnetic properties. Besides the addition of the magnetic characteristics intrinsic to each phase, the interface that results from core–shell and, further, from onion structures leads to synergistic properties such as magnetic exchange coupling. Such a phenomenon is of high interest to overcome the superparamagnetic limit of iron oxide nanoparticles which hampers potential applications such as data storage or sensors. In this manuscript, we report on the design of nanoparticles with an onion-like structure which has been scarcely reported yet. These nanoparticles consist of a Fe3−δO4 core covered by a first shell of CoFe2O4 and a second shell of Fe3−δO4, e.g., a Fe3−δO4@CoFe2O4@Fe3−δO4 onion-like structure. They were synthesized through a multistep seed-mediated growth approach which consists consists in performing three successive thermal decomposition of metal complexes in a high-boiling-point solvent (about 300 °C). Although TEM micrographs clearly show the growth of each shell from the iron oxide core, core sizes and shell thicknesses markedly differ from what is suggested by the size increasing. We investigated very precisely the structure of nanoparticles in performing high resolution (scanning) TEM imaging and geometrical phase analysis (GPA). The chemical composition and spatial distribution of atoms were studied by electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) mapping and spectroscopy. The chemical environment and oxidation state of cations were investigated by 57Fe Mössbauer spectrometry, soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). The combination of these techniques allowed us to estimate the increase of Fe2+ content in the iron oxide core of the core@shell structure and the increase of the cobalt ferrite shell thickness in the core@shell@shell one, whereas the iron oxide shell appears to be much thinner than expected. Thus, the modification of the chemical composition as well as the size of the Fe3−δO4 core and the thickness of the cobalt ferrite shell have a high impact on the magnetic properties. Furthermore, the growth of the iron oxide shell also markedly modifies the magnetic properties of the core–shell nanoparticles, thus demonstrating the high potential of onion-like nanoparticles to accurately tune the magnetic properties of nanoparticles according to the desired applications.
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Mar 2021
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I10-Beamline for Advanced Dichroism
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[21616, 18759]
Abstract: Heterostructures composed of ferromagnetic layers that are mutually interacting through a nonmagnetic spacer are at the core of magnetic sensor and memory devices. In the present study, layer-resolved ferromagnetic resonance was used to investigate the coupling between the magnetic layers of a Co/MgO/Permalloy magnetic tunnel junction. Two magnetic resonance peaks were observed for both magnetic layers, as probed at the Co and Ni
L
3
x-ray absorption edges, showing a strong interlayer interaction through the insulating MgO barrier. A theoretical model based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert-Slonczewski equation was developed, including exchange coupling and spin pumping between the magnetic layers. Fits to the experimental data were carried out, both with and without a spin pumping term, and the goodness of the fit was compared using a likelihood ratio test. This rigorous statistical approach provides an unambiguous proof of the existence of interlayer coupling mediated by spin pumping.
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Feb 2021
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I10-Beamline for Advanced Dichroism
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[11784, 12943, 12958]
Open Access
Abstract: From the perspective of surface science, only the topmost atomic layers usually exhibit physical properties that are different to those of the bulk material, whereas the deeper layers are assumed to be bulk-like and remain largely unexplored. Going beyond conventional diffraction and imaging techniques, we have determined the depth dependence of the full 3D spin structure of magnetic skyrmions below the surface of a bulk Cu2OSeO3 sample using the polarization dependence of resonant elastic x-ray scattering (REXS). While the bulk spin configuration showed the anticipated Bloch type structure, it was found that the skyrmion lattice changes to a Néel twisting (i.e., with a different helicity angle) at the surface within a distance of several hundred nm. The exact surface helicity angle and penetration length of this twist have been determined, revealing the detailed internal structure of the skyrmion tube. It was found that the experimental penetration length of the Néel twisting is 7× longer than the theoretical value given by the ratio of J/D. This indicates that apart from the considered spin interactions, i.e., the Heisenberg exchange interaction J and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction D, as well as the Zeeman interaction, other effects must play an important role. The findings suggest that the surface reconstruction of the skyrmion lattice is a universal phenomenon, stemming from the breaking of translational symmetry at the interface.
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Jan 2021
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I10-Beamline for Advanced Dichroism
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[20182]
Open Access
Abstract: A chiral bobber is a localized three-dimensional magnetization configuration, terminated by a singularity. Chiral bobbers coexist with magnetic skyrmions in chiral magnets, lending themselves to new types of skyrmion-complementary bits of information. However, the on-demand creation of bobbers, as well as their direct observation remained elusive. Here, we introduce a new mechanism for creating a stable chiral bobber lattice state via the proximity of two skyrmion species with comparable size. This effect is experimentally demonstrated in a
Cu
2
OSeO
3
/
[
Ta
/
CoFeB
/
MgO
]
4
heterostructure in which an exotic bobber lattice state emerges in the phase diagram of
Cu
2
OSeO
3
. To unambiguously reveal the existence of the chiral bobber lattice state, we have developed a novel characterization technique, magnetic truncation rod analysis, which is based on resonant elastic x-ray scattering.
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Jan 2021
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