Imaging of antiferromagnetic domains at the NiO(1 0 0) surface by linear dichroism in near UV photoemission microscopy

Abstract Antiferromagnetic domains at the NiO(1 0 0) single-crystal surface are imaged by photoemission microscopy excited by linearly polarized near UV radiation from a mercury vapour light source. The contrast is observed by subtracting images excited by s- and p-polarized light. This contrast is compared with the contrast from X-ray magnetic linear dichroism (XMLD). Here the XMLD contrast is gained by subtracting two images excited by the same polarization but different photon energies at the Ni2p core excitation.