Intrinsic topological spin probes for electrical imaging of nanoscale energy landscapes

Abstract

Disorder in magnetic materials prevents reliable control of spin textures and constrains their integration into spintronic devices. Existing methods access disorder only indirectly through external imaging probes or bulk transport measurements, leaving the internal energy landscape inaccessible. We introduce an intrinsic magnetic microscopy method in which a topological spin texture serves as a mobile probe of disorder, directly mapping energy landscapes inside multilayer devices without probe-sample separation. Using a ~10-nm magnetic vortex core confined within a magnetic tunnel junction, we track its displacement with nanometer-scale sensitivity to resolve intrinsic and engineered defect-induced potentials and directly quantify local pinning forces. This framework establishes spin textures as internal spectroscopic probes of disorder and enables quantitative engineering of pinning structures in functional magnetic systems.