Abstract
Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) is a widely used technique for magnetic imaging. Besides its advantages such as the high spatial resolution and the easy use in the characterization of relevant applied materials, the main handicaps of the technique are the lack of control over the tip stray field and poor lateral resolution when working under standard conditions. In this work, we present a convenient route to prepare high-performance MFM probes with sub-10 nm (sub-25 nm) topographic (magnetic) lateral resolution by following an easy and quick low-cost approach. This allows one to not only customize the tip stray field, avoiding tip-induced changes in the sample magnetization, but also to optimize MFM imaging in vacuum (or liquid media) by choosing tips mounted on hard (or soft) cantilevers, a technology that is currently not available on the market.
Highlights
Conventional Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) probes consist of pyramidal Si or SiN tips with a ferromagnetic thin film coating mounted on a cantilever with resonance frequency and spring constant of around 75 kHz and 3 N/m, respectively, and with a final apex radius of typically tens of nanometres
Several works focus on reducing the physical size of the magnetic material of the tip, either by using focused ion beam (FIB) milled tips [1,2], electron beam deposited tips [3,4] or stencil-deposited metal dots onto an AFM tip [5]
One can find the use of nanomagnets with high anisotropy as MFM probes [13] and different approaches to control the final domain at the tip apex [14,15], seeking best sensitivity or resolution
Summary
Conventional MFM probes consist of pyramidal Si or SiN tips with a ferromagnetic thin film coating (generally a CoCr alloy) mounted on a cantilever with resonance frequency and spring constant of around 75 kHz and 3 N/m, respectively, and with a final apex radius of typically tens of nanometres. Probes with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been fabricated for MFM imaging either by mechanical attachment [6,7,8] or direct growth on commercial pyramid tips [9]. Good control in terms of angle and position can be achieved when attaching CNTs to Si tips by using nanomanipulators [10], it requires sophisticated and time-consuming processes. Other approaches use magnetic nanowires [11] or coated carbon nanocones [12] to improve the detection of small domains. One can find the use of nanomagnets with high anisotropy as MFM probes [13] and different approaches to control the final domain at the tip apex [14,15], seeking best sensitivity or resolution.
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