Single scan STEM-EMCD in 3-beam orientation using a quadruple aperture

Visualizing subatomic orbital and spin moments using a scanning transmission electron microscope

Magnetism originates from the spin and orbital angular momenta of electrons and their coupling. These interactions occur at subatomic scales and a comprehensive understanding of such phenomena relies on characterization techniques capable of probing the spin and orbital moments at atomic resolution. Although electron energy loss magnetic chiral dichroism has previously enabled the detection of magnetic moments at atomic scales, it was limited to a chromatic-aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope. Although possible, the detection of atomic-scale electron energy loss magnetic chiral dichroism in a scanning transmission electron microscope remains elusive due to challenges associated with convergent beam setups. Here we demonstrate the detection of atomic-scale electron energy loss magnetic chiral dichroism signals in a probe-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope. We not only determine the orbital-to-spin moments ratio for individual atomic planes of an iron crystal but also reveal its local variations at subatomic scales. These findings open the possibility of resolving magnetism down to the orbital level in future studies.

Quantitative magnetic mapping in TEM through accurate 2D thickness determination

Off-axis Electron Holography and Electron Magnetic Circular Dichroism are powerful Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) techniques capable of mapping magnetic information with near-atomic spatial resolution. However, the magnetic signals obtained is semi-quantitative due to factors such as thickness variations and local crystallographic changes. Precise determination of spatial thickness variations can make these techniques more quantitative. Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) provides a method to measure thickness variations within a region of interest. The absolute thickness depends on reliable estimates of the inelastic mean free path (λ), which is often unknown for many materials. Alternative techniques, such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Convergent Beam Electron Diffraction (CBED), either lack spatial resolution in thickness mapping or are accurate only within a limited thickness range. Here, we present a straightforward approach to precisely determine the inelastic mean free path (λ), enabling accurate thickness measurements from EELS maps. We compare these thickness measurements with CBED- and SEM-based methods, identifying discrepancies, particularly in thinner samples (<100nm). Finally, we demonstrate how this calibrated thickness measurement can provide quantitative magnetic maps using TEM-based magnetic measurements.

Prospect for detecting magnetism in two-dimensional perovskite oxides by electron magnetic circular dichroism

Two-dimensional (2D) magnets, especially strongly correlated 2D transition-metal perovskite oxides, have attracted significant attention due to their intriguing electromagnetic properties for potential applications in spintronic devices. Potentially electron magnetic circular dichroism (EMCD) under zone axis conditions can provide three-dimensional components of magnetic moments in 2D materials, but the collection efficiency and the signal-to-noise ratio for out-of-plane (OOP) components is limited due to the limited collection angle. Here we conducted a comprehensive computational simulation to optimize the experimental setting of EMCD for detecting the OOP components of magnetic moments in three beam conditions (3BCs) on 2D perovskite oxides La1-xSrxMnO3 (LSMO) in a TEM. The key parameters are sample thickness, accelerating voltage, Sr doping concentration, collection semi-angle and position, and sample orientation including systematic reflections excited and tilt angle. Our simulation results demonstrate that the relative dynamical diffraction coefficients of Mn OOP EMCD of LaMnO3 with a thickness ranging from 1 unit cell (uc) to 4 uc can be optimized in a 3BC with (110) systematic reflections excited and a relatively large collection semi-angle of 19 mrad at the relatively low accelerating voltage of 80 kV. In most cases, the relative dynamic diffraction coefficients for La1-xSrxMnO3 with the thickness ranging from 1 uc to 4 uc decrease with the increase of the Sr doping concentrations. The optimal tilt angle from a zone axis to a 3BC is 18° for the cases of the LSMO thickness of 2 uc, 3 uc and 4 uc, and 22° for the monolayer LSMO. Our work provides the theoretical simulation foundation for optimized EMCD experiments for measuring OOP components of magnetic moments in 2D transition-metal perovskite oxides.

Experimental evidence of magnetism in a 2D electron gas at the CoO/Co3O4 interface by employing EMCD

In the present study we investigate the CoO/Co3O4 interface in order to determine its intriguing magnetic behavior, which can be utilized for tailoring magnetic properties, enabling spin transport, enhancing magnetic coupling, tuning device functionalities, and realizing miniaturized magnetic devices for various technological applications. We decipher the magnetic properties of the CoO/Co3O4 interface from first principles calculations using Wien2k and probe them experimentally by employing electron energy-loss magnetic chiral dichroism (EMCD), which is an electron-energy loss spectrometry (EELS) based technique in the transmission electron microscope (TEM). Both, theory and experiment, are in perfect agreement and result in a ferromagnetic 2D-electron gas of 5Å thickness directly at the interface.

Noise-dependent bias in quantitative STEM-EMCD experiments revealed by bootstrapping

Electron magnetic circular dichroism (EMCD) is a powerful technique for estimating element-specific magnetic moments of materials on nanoscale with the potential to reach atomic resolution in transmission electron microscopes. However, the fundamentally weak EMCD signal strength complicates quantification of magnetic moments, as this requires very high precision, especially in the denominator of the sum rules. Here, we employ a statistical resampling technique known as bootstrapping to an experimental EMCD dataset to produce an empirical estimate of the noise-dependent error distribution resulting from application of EMCD sum rules to bcc iron in a 3-beam orientation. We observe clear experimental evidence that noisy EMCD signals preferentially bias the estimation of magnetic moments, further supporting this with error distributions produced by Monte-Carlo simulations. Finally, we propose guidelines for the recognition and minimization of this bias in the estimation of magnetic moments.