Automated Imaging of the Annihilation of a Transverse Domain Wall in Patterned Magnetic Thin Films

Abstract

Imaging the magnetic domain wall behavior in patterned thin films under external stimuli can enable understanding the underlying energy landscape as well as the role of local microstructure and defects. We present an automated workflow for in-situ Lorentz transmission electron microscopy to image magnetic domain walls at the nanometer length scale and at a time resolution in the sub-millisecond regime - the latter of which is limited by the speed of the available camera. Our workflow is modular and can be broadly applied to various types of in-situ experiments, taking us a step closer to the future of autonomous imaging of nanomagnetic films with electron microscopy. Using our workflow, we show the transformation of a transverse domain wall with sub-millisecond time resolution under the application of an in-situ transverse magnetic field, a study of whose dynamics are essential in the design of future domain wall mediated spintronic device applications.