As nanoelectronics encounters fundamental barriers, the spin of an electron, in addition to its charge, is being utilized to carry information in electronic devices. This calls for new characterization and detection methods of spin modes in complex magnetic structures. Present techniques measure either material properties on the nanometer length scale or on the picosecond time scale, however, both are needed simultaneously to obtain a complete picture in order to advance future technological developments.
Researchers from Diamond Light Source focussed on Magnetic Spectroscopy, the University of Oxford, and ShanghaiTech University have developed a novel diffractive ferromagnetic resonance (DFMR) technique for retrieving the dynamics of individual spin modes. DFMR combines the power of two measurement techniques, resonant elastic X-ray scattering (REXS) for retrieving the detailed spin structure of a magnetic system, and X-ray detected ferromagnetic resonance (XFMR) for accessing the element-selective magnetization dynamics. The team’s recent publication in Nano Letters demonstrates their DFMR technique by studying the spin dynamics of a multiferroic hexaferrite, which has great potential for information storage applications.
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Link to the article in Nano Letters.