Quantitative domain wall width measurement with coherent electrons

Quantitative measurements of domain wall widths in a magnetic thin foil of Nd2Fe14B are obtained by the analysis of coherent shadow deformation of the biprism in an electron microscope. Information related to the phase gradient in the direction, perpendicular to the biprism is extracted by comparing recorded images and simulations computed according to the experimental electron-optical configuration and by varying the domain wall width w. We demonstrate the usefulness of the technique for extraction of magnetic information at the nanometer scale. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.