Table-top resonant magnetic scattering with extreme ultraviolet light from high-order harmonic generation

¹ Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA ParisTech - CNRS UMR 7639 - École polytechnique Chemin de la Hunière, F-91761 Palaiseau, France, EU
² Grupo de Lasers e Plasmas - Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal, EU
³ Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique, CNRS et Université Paris Sud, Campus Polytechnique RD 128, F-91127 Palaiseau, France, EU
⁴ Institut de Physique et de Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg, Université de Strasbourg - CNRS UMR 7504 23 rue du Loess, F-67034 Strasbourg, France, EU
⁵ Laboratoire de Chimie Physique - Matière et Rayonnement, Université Pierre et Marie Curie - CNRS UMR 7614 - 11 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, F-75005 Paris, France, EU

^a boris.vodungbo@ensta-paristech.fr

Received: 8 March 2010
Accepted: 20 April 2010

Abstract

We demonstrate for the first time the applicability of high-order harmonic generation for probing magnetization properties with nanometer spatial resolution. High harmonics were generated by focusing an infrared femtosecond laser into a neon-filled gas cell. Using a high throughput monochromator, EUV pulses with a photon energy resonant to the magnetically dichroic Co M_{2, 3} absorption resonance were obtained. These were focused onto a CoPd alloy film and the magnetic scattering pattern was recorded in a transmission geometry. The scattering pattern induced by the magnetic domain structure consists of two well-defined bright spots revealing the presence of stripe domains of about 63 nm in width. With the inherent femtosecond time resolution given by high harmonics, this demonstration paves the way to investigate ultrafast magnetization dynamics with femtosecond time and nanometer spatial resolutions, in jitter-free experiment based on table-top EUV light sources.