Soft X-ray ptychographic reconstructions of a neodymium nickel oxide thin film
Name
1132720418-MIT.pdf
Size
5.34 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
6badd2325dd2fdcf8cff0ee412fc589b
Author(s)
Cain, Madelyn(Madelyn G.)
Advisor(s)
Riccardo Comin.
Date Issued
2019
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Rare earth (R) perovskite nickelates RNiO 3 have a rich phase diagram which includes a metal-insulator and paramagnetic-antiferromagnetic phase transition. In neodymium nickel oxide (NdNiO 3 ), these phase transitions coincide, creating a mixedphase state at the critical point. Imaging these competing phases on a nanometerscale may offer unique insights to the driving mechanism behind the metal-insulator transition, which is not well understood. A combination of soft X-ray ptychography and resonant soft X-ray scattering techniques enable direct imaging of the antiferromagnetic domains of NdNiO 3 at the phase transition. In this thesis, I will present ptychographic reconstructions of an epitaxial NdNiO 3 sample near the critical temperature using data taken at the Coherent Soft X-ray Scattering beamline of the National Synchrotron Light Source II. I used phase retrieval algorithms to reconstruct an image of the sample using the custom-developed software package CDTools, which I helped design and build. My reconstructions reveal the antiferromagnetic domains of NdNiO 3 near the critical point, paving the way for future reconstructions of quantum materials. I address several factors limiting the quality of the reconstructions, including uncertainties in the location of the nanopositioners and the beam energy.
Description
Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, 2019
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 67-69).
Subjects
Physics.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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