title: Achieving atomic resolution magnetic dichroism by controlling the phase symmetry of an electron probe.
abstract: The calculations presented here reveal that an electron probe carrying orbital angular momentum is just a particular case of a wider class of electron beams that can be used to measure electron magnetic circular dichroism (EMCD) with atomic resolution. It is possible to obtain an EMCD signal with atomic resolution by simply breaking the symmetry of the electron probe phase distribution using the aberration-corrected optics of a scanning transmission electron microscope. The required phase distribution of the probe depends on the magnetic symmetry and crystal structure of the sample. The calculations indicate that EMCD signals utilizing the phase of the electron probe are as strong as those obtained by nanodiffraction methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 516, 75120 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ján
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rusz
authors.affiliation: Center of Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
authors.forename: Juan-Carlos
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Idrobo
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016, India.
authors.forename: Somnath
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhowmick