Surface diffraction on magnetic nanostructures in thin films using grazing incidence SANS

SANS offers the possibility to study nanostructures of sizes ranging from 2 to 200 nm. We have explored the possibility of using SANS in a grazing incidence geometry (GISANS) in order to study magnetic nanostructures in thin films (thickness similar to 50 nm). Even though the amount of material is tiny in such films (similar to 50 mug), working in grazing incidence allows to look at the scattered signal from in-plane magnetic nanostructures in the films. We have performed surface diffraction on magnetic nanostructures (similar to 100 nm in size) on a system consisting of Fe0.5Pd0.5 thin films with a magnetic perpendicular anisotropy. The measurements have been performed in various magnetic field configurations. Magnetic surface diffraction can easily be observed. We present these measurements together with calculations based on a Born approximation. We discuss the information that can be extracted from such polarized neutron measurements. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.