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    Autocorrected off-axis holography of two-dimensional materials
    (College Park, ML : American Physical Society, 2020) Kern, Felix; Linck, Martin; Wolf, Daniel; Alem, Nasim; Arora, Himani; Gemming, Sibylle; Erbe, Artur; Zettl, Alex; Büchner, Bernd; Lubk, Axel
    The reduced dimensionality in two-dimensional materials leads to a wealth of unusual properties, which are currently explored for both fundamental and applied sciences. In order to study the crystal structure, edge states, the formation of defects and grain boundaries, or the impact of adsorbates, high-resolution microscopy techniques are indispensable. Here we report on the development of an electron holography (EH) transmission electron microscopy (TEM) technique, which facilitates high spatial resolution by an automatic correction of geometric aberrations. Distinguished features of EH beyond conventional TEM imaging are gap-free spatial information signal transfer and higher dose efficiency for certain spatial frequency bands as well as direct access to the projected electrostatic potential of the two-dimensional material. We demonstrate these features with the example of h-BN, for which we measure the electrostatic potential as a function of layer number down to the monolayer limit and obtain evidence for a systematic increase of the potential at the zig-zag edges.
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    Chirality coupling in topological magnetic textures with multiple magnetochiral parameters
    ([London] : Nature Publishing Group UK, 2023) Volkov, Oleksii M.; Wolf, Daniel; Pylypovskyi, Oleksandr V.; Kákay, Attila; Sheka, Denis D.; Büchner, Bernd; Fassbender, Jürgen; Lubk, Axel; Makarov, Denys
    Chiral effects originate from the lack of inversion symmetry within the lattice unit cell or sample’s shape. Being mapped onto magnetic ordering, chirality enables topologically non-trivial textures with a given handedness. Here, we demonstrate the existence of a static 3D texture characterized by two magnetochiral parameters being magnetic helicity of the vortex and geometrical chirality of the core string itself in geometrically curved asymmetric permalloy cap with a size of 80 nm and a vortex ground state. We experimentally validate the nonlocal chiral symmetry breaking effect in this object, which leads to the geometric deformation of the vortex string into a helix with curvature 3 μm−1 and torsion 11 μm−1. The geometric chirality of the vortex string is determined by the magnetic helicity of the vortex texture, constituting coupling of two chiral parameters within the same texture. Beyond the vortex state, we anticipate that complex curvilinear objects hosting 3D magnetic textures like curved skyrmion tubes and hopfions can be characterized by multiple coupled magnetochiral parameters, that influence their statics and field- or current-driven dynamics for spin-orbitronics and magnonics.
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    Simultaneous magnetic field and field gradient mapping of hexagonal MnNiGa by quantitative magnetic force microscopy
    (London : Springer Nature, 2023) Freitag, Norbert H.; Reiche, Christopher F.; Neu, Volker; Devi, Parul; Burkhardt, Ulrich; Felser, Claudia; Wolf, Daniel; Lubk, Axel; Büchner, Bernd; Mühl, Thomas
    Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) is a scanning microscopy technique that is commonly employed to probe the sample’s magnetostatic stray fields via their interaction with a magnetic probe tip. In this work, a quantitative, single-pass MFM technique is presented that maps one magnetic stray-field component and its spatial derivative at the same time. This technique uses a special cantilever design and a special high-aspect-ratio magnetic interaction tip that approximates a monopole-like moment. Experimental details, such as the control scheme, the sensor design, which enables simultaneous force and force gradient measurements, as well as the potential and limits of the monopole description of the tip moment are thoroughly discussed. To demonstrate the merit of this technique for studying complex magnetic samples it is applied to the examination of polycrystalline MnNiGa bulk samples. In these experiments, the focus lies on mapping and analyzing the stray-field distribution of individual bubble-like magnetization patterns in a centrosymmetric [001] MnNiGa phase. The experimental data is compared to calculated and simulated stray-field distributions of 3D magnetization textures, and, furthermore, bubble dimensions including diameters are evaluated. The results indicate that the magnetic bubbles have a significant spatial extent in depth and a buried bubble top base.