Spin and Electronic Order: Symmetry, Topology, Disorder and Fluctuations

Soft x-rays can probe from crystal lattice to micro- length scales where tuning to a resonance and specific polarization give additional sensitivity to magnetic, orbital and charge orders as well as element-specific information. Coherent beams offer an even finer probe to disorder and dynamics within complex orders, shedding light on both magnetic and/or electrical field-driven dynamics as well as thermodynamic phase transitions. Symmetries, topology and competing energetics play a vital role in both understanding and manipulating excitations or ground-state order in new intriguing material systems. Some such systems include altermagnets, 2D spin materials, heavily strained interfaces and ferroic and multiferroic skyrmion orders. This workshop aims to explore current and future research in this field but will also provide state-of-the-art capability talks on the relevant techniques to probe spin and electronic degrees of freedom at the Advanced Light Source. Techniques covered will include spectroscopy, magnetic microscopy, x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS), spin-ARPES and resonant x-ray scattering and imaging with simultaneous magneto-electrical transport. The workshop will enable collaborations and facilitate a roadmap towards the further development of x-ray based advanced methods to study next generation quantum materials at the Advanced Light Source. 

ALS User Meeting 2025 Website