Abstract
X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (X-MCD) was used as magnetic contrast mechanism to image at high lateral resolution the domain structure in thin magnetostrictive Terfenol-D layered systems both with full field magnetic X-ray transmission microscopy (M-TXM) at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) in Berkeley CA (USA) and a new photoemission electron microscope (PEEM) at the Swiss Light Source SLS in Villigen (Switzerland). The switching behavior of the magnetic domain structure could be studied with the transmission X-ray microscope at the ALS by recording the evolution of magnetic domains in external magnetic fields. A spin reorientation from out-of-plane to in-plane was observed both after tempering the as-grown amorphous system at elevated temperatures and with decreasing thickness. The coupling mechanism to an adjacent Co layer could be observed due the inherent element-specificity of X-MCD by images taken at the Fe and Co sites, resp. The complementary of x-ray-in/x-ray-out and x-ray-in/electron-out microscopies to image magnetic microstructures could be demonstrated
