Micromagnetic modeling of silicate-hosted magnetic inclusions using SEM-FIB slice-and-view nanotomography

Slice-and-view nanotomography uses a dual beam SEM-FIB to reconstruct the 3D volume of a mineralogical sample using a sequential series of nanoscale slices created with a focussed beam of Ga ions. This method reveals the true shapes and forms of naturally occurring magnetic inclusions hosted by the silicate minerals feldspar and pyroxene. High-resolution 3D morphological data for the magnetic minerals is extracted, converted to tetrahedral meshes, and micromagnetically modelled using the MERRILL software.

This study optimises the step-by-step process of extracting and processing micromagnetic data from polished thin-sections to generate a full rock magnetic classification of the remanence carriers in silicates. Slice-and-view nanotomography follows known preparation methods with a protective platinum layer, carbon rod guides and trenches, but also introduces a carbon slab along the Z-direction for e-beam alignment. This method reduces the need for auto focus, as the e-beam alignment will have a constant imaging distance and generates a good reference point for stack alignment. Image processing is limited to 3D a gaussian blur and 3D mean filters. Paraview is used to set the correct voxel dimensions and to generate the surface mesh. Freeware software Meshmixer and Meshlab are used for their powerful smoothing, mesh interaction tools and geometric calculations. The tetrahedral volume mesh is produced with iso2mesh in Matlab.

Micromagnetic hysteresis and back-field simulations of >400 inclusions with a broad range of morphologies have been performed using MERRILL using 20 different field directions, enabling average magnetic properties to be calculated for a random ensemble. The results give a detailed and direct description of the micromagnetic structure of naturally formed magnetic minerals that compliments macroscopic approaches, such as FORC analysis.