High Harmonic Generation Ptychographic Imaging of Magnetic Materials

Magnetic materials and effects are crucial to our modern society, from electrical motors, powering the future of human travel, to medical Magnetic Resonance Imaging, yielding diagnoses to prolong human life. Many of these myriad technologies, including data storage on hard disk drives, rely on magnetic dynamics on extremely small scales, and in order to probe these nanoscale dynamics scientists must use very short wavelengths of light. Our group has developed a coherent source of exterme ultraviolet light using high harmonic generation, a nonlinear optical process, and is making strides toward imaging magnetic materials with this light source. As the wavelengths being used are not easily manupulated by lenses for imaging, a lensless imaging technique called ptychography is employed. We demonstrate successful reconstruction of objects scanned with a Helium Neon laser, and are progressing in the reconstruction of samples scanned with the high harmonic source.