Physics-Informed Tomographic Imaging of Chiral Nanomagnets

Tiny, twisted magnetic whirls deep inside materials—known as chiral magnetic textures—could one day power revolutionary data storage and computing devices. To explore and understand these complex structures, an international team of researchers from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland is developing a novel imaging framework that allows for three-dimensional visualization of magnetism at the nanometer scale. These chiral textures are among the most fascinating and elusive features in modern magnetism, with dimensions thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair and intricate geometries that are difficult to resolve using existing techniques.
The project builds on recent advances in X-ray microscopy at large synchrotron research facilities. These instruments provide the necessary spatial resolution and sensitivity to observe magnetic materials in unprecedented detail. What makes this project unique is the development of new image reconstruction techniques that directly integrate physical principles into the data analysis. Instead of treating image processing and theoretical modeling separately, this “physics-informed” approach combines both into a unified framework, leading to higher precision and deeper insight.
The research focuses on two kinds of systems: naturally chiral magnetic materials whose internal crystal structure leads to twisting magnetization patterns, and conventional ferromagnetic materials that are shaped into geometrically complex, curved nanostructures to induce chirality. By controlling both the material composition and the shape, the researchers aim to understand how such magnetic textures emerge and evolve, and how they can be influenced by external fields.
The project’s goals are to develop a powerful and flexible reconstruction method that incorporates known physical laws—such as those governing magnetic interactions—into the imaging process, to apply this method experimentally to reveal static 3D magnetic textures such as skyrmions and hopfions in real materials, and to expand the framework to enable the observation of fast, dynamic magnetic processes over time using sparse measurements and intelligent numerical models.
These breakthroughs will not only open new pathways for scientific understanding but also lay the groundwork for technological applications. In the long term, the tools and techniques developed in this project could support the development of ultra-dense magnetic storage, energy-efficient logic devices, and neuromorphic computing systems. By combining expertise in computational physics, nanofabrication, and experimental imaging, this project addresses one of the central challenges in modern nanomagnetism: to truly “see” magnetism in three dimensions—and eventually, in motion.