Using X-Ray Diffraction Microscopy for Imaging Magnetic Domain Structures of Magnetic Thin Films

We report the application of iterative phase retrieval from magnetic x-ray diffraction for imaging magnetic domain structures of magnetic thin films. Using coherent x-ray scattering at the x-ray photon energy corresponding to the L$_{3,2}$ absorption edges of the 3d material Co, we demonstrate that linearly polarized soft x rays can be used to obtain the element specific information about both the amplitude and the phase of magnetic domain structures existing in thin films. We successfully recovered an image of the magnetic structure of an amorphous terbium-cobalt thin film with a spatial resolution of about 75 nm and could differentiate between the magnetization directions, finding qualitative agreement with soft x-ray microscopy images recorded with Fresnel zone plate optics having better than 25 nm spatial resolution.