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PV: Plenarvorträge

PV VI

PV VI: Plenary Talk

Wednesday, March 10, 2004, 09:15–10:00, H1

Magnetism and X-Rays: Past, Present, and A Vision of the Future — •Joachim Stöhr — Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, Stanford, CA 94309

In this talk I will discuss how developments in magnetism research over the last fifteen years have been accompanied by the increased utilization of x-ray techniques to address scientific challenges. Today’s magnetic materials are not the bulk materials of old, but atomically engineered thin film structures with ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic and non-magnetic components. Of special interest are structures with nanometer dimensions and time responses of nanoseconds and faster. This development is clearly fueled by the technological need for smaller and faster magnetic devices. The understanding of advanced materials requires new experimental techniques that are capable of probing them on the nanometer length scale and sub-nanosecond time scale. I will show that this can be uniquely accomplished by use of synchrotron x-rays that are tunable, polarized and pulsed. As examples I will discuss x-ray resonant scattering, x-ray absorption and x-ray spectro-microscopy studies, and their use to elucidate the interfacial exchange coupling between thin magnetic layers, the time-resolved response of magnetic nanostructures to sub-nanosecond magnetic field pulses, and magnetic switching phenomena due to spin polarized currents, so-called “spin-injection”. I will finish with my personal vision of the future, where x-ray lasers will enable studies of the ultrafast magnetic nanoworld by means of femtosecond snapshots.