Extraction of domain-specific magnetization reversal for nanofabricated periodic arrays using soft x-ray resonant magnetic scattering

A simple scheme to extract the magnetization reversals of characteristic magnetic domains on nanofabricated periodic arrays from soft x-ray resonant magnetic scattering (SXRMS) data is presented. The SXRMS peak intensities from a permalloy square ring array were measured with field cycling using circularly polarized soft x-rays at the Ni L$_3$ absorption edge. Various SXRMS hysteresis loops observed at different diffraction orders enabled the determination of the magnetization reversal of each magnetic domain using a simple linear algebra. The extracted domain-specific hysteresis loops reveal that the magnetization of the domain parallel to the field is strongly pinned, while that of the perpendicular domain rotates continuously.