Lucia Aballe

X-ray magnetic circular and linear dichroism are synchrotron-based reference tools for magnetic measurements with the enormous advantage of being element selective. Thanks to the sum rules in many cases it is even possible to distinguish and quantify the spin and orbital magnetic moments. In combination with imaging approaches they are powerful tools for the advanced characterization of magnetic nanostructures and spintronic systems.

Correlative chemical and magnetic spectromicroscopy, imaging of fully compensated synthetic antiferromagnets, vector magnetization mapping, operando experiments, fast magnetization dynamics, and detection of spin accumulation are all possible combining synchrotron magnetic microscopies with flexible geometries and functional sample environments, and the sensitivity can reach well below the single monolayer limit.

I will briefly introduce synchrotron magnetic imaging with an emphasis on the techniques available at the ALBA Synchrotron Light Facility - x-ray photo-emission electron microscopy and full field transmission x-ray microscopy - and illustrate their potential with the help of different examples in order to trigger discussions and possible future collaborations.