Femtosecond magneto-optical Kerr microscopy

Nitrogen-Vacancy Magnetometry of Individual Fe-Triazole Spin Crossover Nanorods

[Fe(Htrz)₂(trz)](BF₄) (Fe-triazole) spin crossover molecules show thermal, electrical, and optical switching between high spin (HS) and low spin (LS) states, making them promising candidates for molecular spintronics. The LS and HS transitions originate from the electronic configurations of Fe(II) and are considered to be diamagnetic and paramagnetic, respectively. The Fe(II) LS state has six paired electrons in the ground states with no interaction with the magnetic field and a diamagnetic behavior is usually observed. While the bulk magnetic properties of Fe-triazole compounds are widely studied by standard magnetometry techniques, their magnetic properties at the individual level are missing. Here we use nitrogen vacancy (NV) based magnetometry to study the magnetic properties of the Fe-triazole LS state of nanoparticle clusters and individual nanorods of size varying from 20 to 1000 nm. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy are performed to determine the size of the nanoparticles/nanorods and to confirm their respective spin states. The magnetic field patterns produced by the nanoparticles/nanorods are imaged by NV magnetic microscopy as a function of applied magnetic field (up to 350 mT) and correlated with SEM and Raman. We found that in most of the nanorods the LS state is slightly paramagnetic, possibly originating from the surface oxidation and/or the greater Fe(III) presence along the nanorods' edges. NV measurements on the Fe-triazole LS state nanoparticle clusters revealed both diamagnetic and paramagnetic behavior. Our results highlight the potential of NV quantum sensors to study the magnetic properties of spin crossover molecules and molecular magnets.

A high resolution magneto-optical system for imaging of individual magnetic flux quanta

A high-resolution magneto-optical imaging system is described. In this system magneto-optical Kerr effect is utilized for resolving individual flux quanta in a type II superconductor. Using an ultra thin EuSe indicator a spatial resolution of 0.8 microm is achieved.

Magnetic imaging with femtosecond temporal resolution

A scanning Kerr microscope with a temporal resolution of <230 fs and a spatial resolution of 210 nm is presented. Equipped with a large temporal and spatial scanning range of 8 ns and 320 microm, respectively, the microscope allows studying nonuniform magnetization dynamics on many different time scales over a large area. For demonstration, we study the magnetization dynamics in Fe/Gd multilayer dot arrays exhibiting a spin reorientation transition (SRT) on three different time scales, namely, femtosecond, picosecond, and nanosecond scales. The dynamics on all time scales varies from one dot to another. This is attributed to the high sensitivity of the SRT to the variations of the layer thicknesses and the Fe/Gd interface structure.

Single-pulse magneto-optic microscopy: a new tool for studying optically induced magnetization reversals

We have developed a femtosecond magneto-optical imaging system that allows measurements of permanent magnetic effects that are initiated by a single excitation pulse. The system combines a subpicosecond temporal resolution and a high spatial resolution. We demonstrate the system in an experiment that studies the laser-induced magnetization reversal in ferromagnetic thin films.