Electron holography observation of individual ferrimagnetic lattice planes.

Abstract

Atomic-scale observations of a specific local area would be considerably beneficial when exploring new fundamental materials and devices. The development of hardware-type aberration correction^1,2 in electron microscopy has enabled local structural observations with atomic resolution^3-5 as well as chemical and vibration analysis^6-8. In magnetic imaging, however, atomic-level spin configurations are analysed by electron energy-loss spectroscopy by placing samples in strong magnetic fields^9-11, which destroy the nature of the magnetic ordering in the samples. Although magnetic-field-free observations can visualize the intrinsic magnetic fields of an antiferromagnet by unit-cell averaging¹², directly observing the magnetic field of an individual atomic layer of a non-uniform structure is challenging. Here we report that the magnetic fields of an individual lattice plane inside materials with a non-uniform structure can be observed under magnetic-field-free conditions by electron holography with a hardware-type aberration corrector assisted by post-digital aberration correction. The magnetic phases of the net magnetic moments of (111) lattice planes formed by opposite spin orderings between Fe³⁺ and Mo⁵⁺ in a ferrimagnetic double-perovskite oxide (Ba₂FeMoO₆) were successfully observed. This result opens the door to direct observations of the magnetic lattice in local areas, such as interfaces and grain boundaries, in many materials and devices.