Polarization effects in coherent scattering from magnetic specimen: Implications for x-ray holography, lensless imaging, and correlation spectroscopy

We present resonant coherent small-angle scattering from sub-μm magnetic domains in an in-line holography geometry. By varying the polarization of the incident soft x rays the interference between the reference wave propagating from a pinhole and scattered object wave can be switched “on” or “off.” The reference-object interference contribution in the scattering can be isolated by combining measurements with right and left circular polarizations. The implications for spatial and temporal interference experiments of magnetic specimen such as holography, lensless imaging, or photon correlation spectroscopy are discussed. © 2003 The American Physical Society.