Scattering of electron vortex beams on a magnetic crystal: towards atomic resolution magnetic measurements

Abstract

Use of electron vortex beams (EVB), that is convergent electron beams carrying an orbital angular momentum (OAM), is a novel development in the field of transmission electron microscopy. They should allow measurement of element-specific magnetic properties of thin crystals using electron magnetic circular dichroism (EMCD)---a phenomenon similar to the x-ray magnetic circular dichroism. Recently it has been shown computationally that EVBs can detect magnetic signal in a scanning mode only at atomic resolution. In this follow-up work we explore in detail the elastic and inelastic scattering properties of EVBs on crystals, as a function of beam diameter, initial OAM, acceleration voltage and beam displacement from an atomic column. We suggest that for a 10 nm layer of bcc iron oriented along (001) zone axis an optimal configuration for a detection of EMCD is an EVB with OAM of $1\hbar$ and a diameter of 1.6 \AA, acceleration voltage 200 keV and an annular detector with inner and outer diameters of $G$ and $5G$, respectively, where $\mathbf{G}=(100)$.