The BLADE beamline at Diamond Light Source can is geared towards research into the magnetic properties of thin-film and nanostructured samples. With x-rays in the soft energy regime, element specific measurements can be performed on the L2,3 absorption edges of transition metals and the M4,5 edges in rare earth materials. Combined with control over the x-ray polarisation state, both arbitrary linear and circular, allows for the investigation of a wide range of magnetic dichroism phenomena.

Using a focussed x-ray beam and through x-ray scattering techniques it is possible to determine the spatial dependence to the magnetic behaviour within a sample. However with potential applications for magnetic materials in novel technological devices, the temporal behaviour of magnetic thin films and nanostructures is also of considerable interest. Our understanding of time-dependent dynamical processes is key to the high speed response of future magnetoelectronic, spintronic and spin-orbitronic technologies.

To investigate these time-resolved magnetic phenomena with element sensitivity we are developing pump-probe measurements using the intrinsic pulse structure of x-rays produced by a synchrotron source. By synchronising a magnetic field or electrical current pulse with a variable delay from the arrival time of x-ray photons we can probe the magnetisation dynamics with sub-nanosecond resolution.