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Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Optimizing Magnetic Force Microscopy Resolution and Sensitivity to Visualize Nanoscale Magnetic Domains
Published on: July 20, 2022
Atomic-resolution imaging of spin-state superlattices in nanopockets within cobaltite thin films
Jaume Gazquez1, Weidong Luo, Mark P Oxley
1Departamento de Física Aplicada III, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, 28040, Spain. jgazqueza@gmail.com
Abstract:
Certain cobalt oxides are known to exhibit ordered Co spin states, as determined from macroscopic techniques. Here we report real-space atomic-resolution imaging of Co spin-state ordering in nanopockets of La(0.5)Sr(0.5)CoO(3-δ) thin films. Unlike the bulk material, where no Co spin-state ordering is found, thin films present a strain-induced domain structure due to oxygen vacancy ordering, inside of which some nanometer sized domains show high-spin Co ions in the planes containing O vacancies and low-spin Co ions in the stoichiometric planes. First-principles calculations provide support for this interpretation.
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