Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Magnetic and chemical heterogeneity are common in a broad range of magnetic thin film systems. Emerging resonant soft x-ray scattering techniques are well suited to resolve such heterogeneity at relevant length scales. Resonant x-ray magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements laterally average over heterogeneity but can provide depth resolution in different ways, as illustrated in measurements resolving reversible and irreversible changes in different layers of exchange-spring heterostructures. Resonant small-angle scattering measures in-plane heterogeneity and can resolve magnetic and chemical scattering sources in different ways, as illustrated in measurements of granular alloy recording media.