Imaging of magnetic domains has contributed essentially to our present level of understanding of magnetic materials. Among these, structures consisting of several ultrathin layers of ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic, and nonmagnetic materials exhibit many new and interesting phenomena. One major issue is to understand the magnetic interaction between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic layers.
Photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM) with synchrotron radiation is a technique capable of delivering layer-resolved magnetic information on a microscopic scale. Based on the element selectivity of X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and linear dichroism (XMLD), it allows the layer-resolved visualization of magnetic domain patterns at surfaces and in buried layers.
I will present investigations of layered magnetic structures containing single-crystalline antiferromagnetic FeMn layers. Layer-resolved magnetic domain images clarify how the magnetic coupling between the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic layers depends sensitively on the atomic-scale morphology of the interface [1]. Because of a three-dimensional non-collinear antiferromagnetic spin structure of FeMn, the XMLD signal of the antiferromagnetic layer vanishes. However, it was possible to identify the tiny XMLD signal of the induced magnetic moments of the FeMn layer at the interface [2]. Interestingly, the XMLD signal of a ferromagnetic Co layer shows a pronounced anisotropy, which is triggered by the contact to the antiferromagnetic FeMn layer.

Results were obtained in collaboration with F. Offi, L. I. Chelaru, M. Kotsugi, K. Fukumoto, J. Wang, J. Kirschner and J. Kunes.

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