Uniaxial polarization analysis of bulk ferromagnets: theory and first experimental results

On the basis of Brown’s static equations of micromagnetics, the uniaxial polarization of the scattered neutron beam of a bulk magnetic material is computed. The approach considers a Hamiltonian that takes into account the isotropic exchange interaction, the antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction, magnetic anisotropy, the dipole–dipole interaction and the effect of an applied magnetic field. In the high-field limit, the solutions for the magnetization Fourier components are used to obtain closed-form results for the spin-polarized small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) cross sections and the ensuing polarization. The theoretical expressions are compared with experimental data on a soft magnetic nanocrystalline alloy. The micromagnetic SANS theory provides a general framework for polarized real-space neutron methods, and it may open up a new avenue for magnetic neutron data analysis on magnetic microstructures.