Disentangling magnetic order on nanostructured surfaces

We present a synchrotron-based x-ray scattering technique which allows disentangling magnetic properties of heterogeneous systems with nanopatterned surfaces. This technique combines the nanometer-range spatial resolution of surface morphology features provided by grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering and the high sensitivity of nuclear resonant scattering to magnetic order. A single experiment thus allows attributing magnetic properties to structural features of the sample; chemical and structural properties may be correlated analogously. We demonstrate how this technique shows the correlation between structural growth and evolution of magnetic properties for the case of a remarkable magnetization reversal in a structurally and magnetically nanopatterned sample system.