Few-nm tracking of magnetic vortex orbits and their decay with ultrafast Lorentz microscopy

Abstract

Transmission electron microscopy is one of the most powerful techniques to characterize nanoscale magnetic structures. In light of the importance of fast control schemes of magnetic states, time-resolved microscopy techniques are highly sought after in fundamental and applied research. Here, we implement time-resolved Lorentz imaging in combination with synchronous radio-frequency excitation using an ultrafast transmission electron microscope. As a model system, we examine the current-driven gyration of a vortex core in a 2 $\mathrm{\mu}$m-sized magnetic nanoisland. We record the trajectory of the vortex core for continuous-wave excitation, achieving a localization precision of $\pm$2nm with few-minute integration times. Furthermore, by tracking the core position after rapidly switching off the current, we find a temporal hardening of the free oscillation frequency and an increasing orbital decay rate attributed to local disorder in the vortex potential.