Both images show the magnetic domains at the identical position of an Fe(001) whisker surface. The left image is taken using the "standard" XMCD contrast at the Fe L3 absorption edge. No electron energy filtering is applied in that case. Arrows in some domains indicate the local magnetization directions.

   In the right image, the effect of linear magnetic dichroism in the angular distribution (LMDAD) of photoelectrons has been used to obtain magnetic contrast.  Here the electrons have been energy-filtered to accept only photoelectrons emitted from the Fe 3p level. Energy-filtering was performed using a retarding grid imaging energy filter.

   Note the complementary information obtained by the two methods: while the contrast in the left image is proportional to the projection of the magnetization direction on the vertical, it is the projection onto the horizontal direction that leads to the contrast in the right image, although in both cases the light incidence was from bottom to top, 30° from the sample surface. The reduced statistics in the right image is a consequence of the much lower intensity due to electron energy filtering.