Stray-field imaging of magnetic vortices with a single diamond spin

Despite decades of advances in magnetic imaging, obtaining direct, quantitative information with nanometre scale spatial resolution remains an outstanding challenge. Recently, a technique has emerged that employs a single nitrogen-vacancy defect in diamond as an atomic-size magnetometer, which promi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2013, Vol.4 (1), p.2279, Article 2279
Main Authors: Rondin, L, Tetienne, J-P, Rohart, S, Thiaville, A, Hingant, T, Spinicelli, P, Roch, J-F, Jacques, V
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Despite decades of advances in magnetic imaging, obtaining direct, quantitative information with nanometre scale spatial resolution remains an outstanding challenge. Recently, a technique has emerged that employs a single nitrogen-vacancy defect in diamond as an atomic-size magnetometer, which promises significant advances. However, the effectiveness of the technique when applied to magnetic nanostructures remains to be demonstrated. Here we use a scanning nitrogen-vacancy magnetometer to image a magnetic vortex, which is one of the most iconic objects of nanomagnetism, owing to the small size (~10 nm) of the vortex core. We report three-dimensional, vectorial and quantitative measurements of the stray magnetic field emitted by a vortex in a ferromagnetic square dot, including the detection of the vortex core. We find excellent agreement with micromagnetic simulations, both for regular vortex structures and for higher-order magnetization states. These experiments establish scanning nitrogen-vacancy magnetometry as a practical and unique tool for fundamental studies in nanomagnetism.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms3279