X-ray microscopy with X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism

We report on the first combination of the X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (X-MCD) with the transmission X-ray microscope (TXM) at BESSY I based on the zone-plate technique providing a spatial resolution of similar to 60nm which has been applied to study magnetic domains. The images were recorded in transmission mode at the Fe L-3 absorption edge with a 59nm thick GdFe system. Below the edge the images exhibited no spatial contrast. Pronounced structures according to a contrast, i.e. a difference of the transmitted intensities in the order of 17% could be observed at an incident energy of approximate to 706eV. The relative change of intensity allows to deduce the direction and strength of the spatial magnetization distribution The evolution of the growth of these magnetic domains as function of the applied external magnetic field allows to study the characteristics of the domain walls and the behaviour of the magnetization inside the magnetic domains. Close to the saturation field thin worm-like domains with a thickness of about 100nm remained relative stable.