Calculations of the sensitivity function for a mis-aligned thin film in a Mallinson coil set

Studies the accuracy of angular calibrations for VSM measurements on a thin film sample in the presence of misalignments have been performed by computations of the sensitivity function. The pick-up coils are the usual Mallison-type. For a square thin-film sample with dimensions of 4 mm×4 mm, the errors due to displacements or off-center rotations of the thin film sample are lower than 5% for all rotation angles if the mis-alignments are controlled to within 1 mm. They increase rapidly, however, if the positional misalignments are larger than 1 mm. If the alignment is performed carefully, the errors caused by tilting the thin film sample is less than 1%. Constraints on the edge length of the thin film is also useful in preventing excessive errors