Authors:

Melanie Wiegand

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About Paper:

In this project, I investigate how electron vortex beams-probes carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM)- interact with magnetic skyrmions of differing handedness. Magnetic skyrmions are nanoscale, whirlpool-like spin textures with high topological stability and strong potential for use in spintronics and next-generation data storage. Because skyrmions are intrinsically chiral structures, imaging them with chiral probes may reveal unique interactions-yielding extra information compared with a traditional electron beam. To explore this possibility, I modeled left- and right-handed skyrmions and simulated the propagation of electron vortex beams with varied OAM across the structures. These simulations emulate the procedure of a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), and produce four-dimensional datasets of diffraction patterns. I then applied ptychographic reconstruction to this data to recover the exit wavefunction and analyze changes in the probe's angular momentum after interacting with the skyrmions. By comparing the results of each beam/skyrmion combination (including a non-vortex control beam), I evaluated the effects of matching and opposing chiralities. Results indicate that chiral interactions produce measurable shifts in the probe's wavefunction. These findings demonstrate the potential of electron vortex beams as probes for magnetic materials, enabling new approaches for imaging and a deeper understanding of nanoscale magnetic structures. 373 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON • 2026 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM TABLE OF CONTENTS

Source:

University of Oregon / 2026

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Co-authors:

Melanie Wiegand