Tilted X-Ray Holography of Magnetic Bubbles in MnNiGa Lamellae

ACS Nano. 2021 Jan 26;15(1):387-395. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.0c07392. Epub 2020 Oct 29.

Abstract

Nanoscopic lamellae of centrosymmetric ferromagnetic alloys have recently been reported to host the biskyrmion spin texture; however, this has been disputed as the misidentication of topologically trivial type-II magnetic bubbles. Here we demonstrate resonant soft X-ray holographic imaging of topological magnetic states in lamellae of the centrosymmetric alloy (Mn1-xNix)0.65Ga0.35 (x = 0.5), showing the presence of magnetic stripes evolving into single core magnetic bubbles. We observe rotation of the stripe phase via the nucleation and destruction of disclination defects. This indicates the system behaves as a conventional uniaxial ferromagnet. By utilizing the holography with extended reference by autocorrelation linear differential operator (HERALDO) method, we show tilted holographic images at 30° incidence confirming the presence of type-II magnetic bubbles in this system. This study demonstrates the utility of X-ray imaging techniques in identifying the topology of localized structures in nanoscale magnetism.

Keywords: MnNiGa; X-ray holography; biskyrmion; topological magnetism; type-II bubble.