Large-angle Lorentz 4D-STEM for Simultaneous Magnetic and Atomic Structure Mapping

Abstract

Achieving a correlative measurement of both magnetic and atomic structures at the nanoscale is imperative to understand the fundamental magnetism of matters and for fostering the development of new magnetic nanomaterials. Conventional microscopy methods fall short in providing the two information simultaneously. Here, we develop a new approach, large-angle Lorentz 4-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (LA-Ltz-4D-STEM), to simultaneously map the magnetic field and atomic structure at the nanoscale. This method enables precise measurement of the characteristic atomic and magnetic structures across an extensive field of view, a critical aspect for investigating real-world ferromagnetic materials. The pixel-by-pixel correlation of the different information offers comprehensive visualization and statistical evaluation of the nanoscale magnetic phenomena. We applied the new method to directly visualize the magnetoelastic coupling as well as the competition between magnetoelastic and magnetostatic energy in an amorphous ferromagnet. This approach opens new avenues for in-depth studying the structure-property correlation of nanoscale magnetic materials.