Magnon diffuse scattering in scanning transmission electron microscopy

Abstract

We present a theory and a simulation of thermal diffuse scattering due to the excitation of magnons in scanning transmission electron microscopy. The calculations indicate that magnons can present atomic contrast when detected by electron energy-loss spectroscopy using atomic-size electron beams. The results presented here indicate that the intensity of the magnon diffuse scattering in bcc iron at 300~K is 4 orders of magnitude weaker than the intensity of thermal diffuse scattering arising from atomic vibrations. In an energy range where the phonon and magnon dispersions do not overlap, a monochromated scanning transmission electron microscope equipped with direct electron detectors for spectroscopy is expected to resolve the magnon spectral signatures.

6 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Magnetic Effects in the Paraxial Regime of Elastic Electron Scattering
• The frequency-resolved frozen phonon multislice method and its application to vibrational EELS using parallel illumination
• A platform for time-resolved scanning Kerr microscopy in the near-field
• Quantum-mechanical treatment of atomic resolution differential phase contrast imaging of magnetic materials
• Simulations of angle- and spatially-resolved vibrational electron energy loss spectroscopy for a system with a planar defect

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Dynamical theory of angle-resolved electron energy loss and gain spectroscopies of phonons and magnons in transmission electron microscopy including multiple scattering effects
• Unveiling the impact of temperature on magnon diffuse scattering detection in the transmission electron microscope
• Shot-to-shot acquisition ultrafast electron diffraction