Photoemission electron microscopy of neodymium-iron-boron (Nd2Fe14B)

The magnetic domain structure of a neodymium-iron-boron single crystal (Nd2Fe14B) was investigated in a photoemission electron microscope equipped with an aperture for partial restriction of the electron beam. As a result of the influence of magnetic microfields, electron trajectories are deflected in such a way that some of them are stopped by the aperture in the electron optical path. As a result, the contrast caused by the stray fields of the magnetic domains is significantly enhanced. The distribution of the local magnetic fields at the surface is reconstructed from the image by means of the proposed theory on the contrast mechanism. The size of the stray field close to the sample surface under study was 0.5–0.7 T.