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Updated: Jul 29, 2025

Optimizing Magnetic Force Microscopy Resolution and Sensitivity to Visualize Nanoscale Magnetic Domains
Published on: July 20, 2022
Nanoscale Magnetic Domains in Polycrystalline Mn3Sn Films Imaged by a Scanning Single-Spin Magnetometer
Senlei Li1, Mengqi Huang1, Hanyi Lu1
1Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States.
Abstract:
Noncollinear antiferromagnets with novel magnetic orders, vanishingly small net magnetization, and exotic spin related properties hold enormous promise for developing next-generation, transformative spintronic applications. A major ongoing research focus of this community is to explore, control, and harness unconventional magnetic phases of this emergent material system to deliver state-of-the-art functionalities for modern microelectronics. Here we report direct imaging of magnetic domains of polycrystalline Mn3Sn films, a prototypical noncollinear antiferromagnet, using nitrogen-vacancy-based single-spin scanning microscopy. Nanoscale evolution of local stray field patterns of Mn3Sn samples are systematically investigated in response to external driving forces, revealing the characteristic "heterogeneous" magnetic switching behaviors in polycrystalline textured Mn3Sn films. Our results contribute to a comprehensive understanding of inhomogeneous magnetic orders of noncollinear antiferromagnets, highlighting the potential of nitrogen-vacancy centers to study microscopic spin properties of a broad range of emergent condensed matter systems.
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