Compact Magnetic Force Microscope (MFM) System in a 12 T Cryogen-Free Superconducting Magnet.

Abstract

Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) is among the best techniques for examining and assessing local magnetic characteristics in surface structures at scales and sizes. It may be viewed as a unique way to operate atomic force microscopy with a ferromagnetic tip. The enhancement of magnetic signal resolution, the utilization of external fields during measurement, and quantitative data analysis are now the main areas of MFM development. We describe a new structure of MFM design based on a cryogen-free superconducting magnet. The piezoelectric tube (PZT) was implemented with a tip-sample coarse approach called SpiderDrive. The technique uses a magnetic tip on the free end of a piezo-resistive cantilever which oscillates at its resonant frequency. We obtained a high-quality image structure of the magnetic domain of commercial videotape under extreme conditions at 5 K, and a high magnetic field up to 11 T. When such a magnetic field was gradually increased, the domain structure of the videotape did not change much, allowing us to maintain the images in the specific regions to exhibit the performance. In addition, it enabled us to locate the sample region in the order of several hundred nanometers. This system has an extensive range of applications in the exploration of anisotropic magnetic phenomena in topological materials and superconductors.