Ferromagnet-coated carbon nanotube tips for high-resolution magnetic force microscopy

Nano-magnetic materials and the shrinking bit size of magnetic recording media demand improvement in magnetic imaging techniques and in local magnetic metrology. In this paper, we describe the new ferromagnet-coated carbon nanotube tips and also the improvements in the process and the resulting process yield; present experimental evidence for the ultimate limits on the sensitivity and resolution related to the development of superparamagnetism in the probe tip; and briefly discuss two other promising techniques for quantifying the properties of sub-10-nm nanomagnets.The spatial resolution of Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) is limited by the tip´s size, shape, and height above the sample surface. Among other recent innovative MFM probes, we recently reported the development of metal-coated carbon nanotube (CCNT) probes to address this need.