Magnetic depth profiles from resonant soft x-ray scattering : Application to Dy thin films

We employ the strong variation of the photon penetration depth across an electronic resonance in soft x-ray scattering for a depth resolved study of an antiferromagnetic (AFM) thin film. We directly observed the development of the helical AFM structure in thin Dy(001) films on W(110) across the temperature-induced phase transition from ferromagnetic to helical AFM order.