Probing antiferromagnetic domains and textures at criticality using single-shot Resonant Coherent Soft X-ray Scattering

ORAL

Abstract

Strongly correlated oxides host a rich phase diagram due to the strong interplay between structural, electronic and spin degrees of freedom. For example, the perovskite nickelate compound PrNiO3 (PNO) exhibits a first-order phase transition from paramagnetic metal to bond-ordered antiferromagnetic insulator, in which structural, charge and spin degrees of freedom are all coupled. Here we investigate a thin film of PNO grown on a substrate of tensile-strain inducing (LaAlO3)0.3(Sr2TaAlO6)0.7 (LSAT), and use coherent resonant soft x-ray scattering at the Ni L3 edge to study the emergence of the magnetic order parameter in the critical regime of the phase transition. We observe a small-q periodic modulation on the magnetic bragg peak which we argue to be the ‘fingerprint’ of a particular domain configuration. By analyzing the symmetry of these small-q modulations it was possible to directly guess the corresponding real-space domain arrangement and reproduce the observed diffraction patterns. This process is facilitated by the 2-dimensional nature of the domain arrangement, and represents a powerful new approach to single-shot imaging of 2-dimensional mesoscopic antiferromagnetic spin textures.

*UCSD MRSEC, supported by the NSF (Grant DMR-2011924).

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Presenters

  • Rourav Basak

    • University of California, San Diego
    • University of California San Diego

Authors

  • Rourav Basak

    • University of California, San Diego
    • University of California San Diego

  • Martin Bluschke

    • University of British - Columbia

  • Andi Barbour

    • NSLS-II, Brookhaven National Lab
    • Brookhaven National Laboratory
    • Brookhaven National Lab

  • Ashley Warner

    • University of California San Diego

  • Katrin Fuersich

    • Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research
    • Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics

  • Stuart Wilkins

    • Brookhaven National Laboratory
    • NSLS-II, Brookhaven National Lab

  • Sujoy Roy

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • ALS, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
    • LBL

  • Georg Christiani

    • Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research

  • Gennady Logvenov

    • Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research

  • Matteo Minola

    • Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research

  • Bernhard Keimer

    • Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research
    • Max Planck Institute for Solid State Physics

  • Eva Benckiser

    • Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research

  • Claudio Mazzoli

    • Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Alex Frano

    • Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego
    • University of California San Diego
    • UC San Diego
    • University of California, San Diego