Improvement of Magnetic Force Microscope Resolution and Application to High-Density Recording Media

Author

Futamoto, Masaaki ; Hagami, T. ; Ishihara, Sayaka ; Soneta, K. ; Ohtake, M.

Author_Institution

Fac. of Sci. & Eng., Chuo Univ., Tokyo, Japan

Volume

49

Issue

6

fYear

2013

fDate

Jun-13

Firstpage

2748

Lastpage

2754

Abstract

Magnetic force microscope (MFM) tips are prepared by coating magnetic materials on nonmagnetic Si tips with 4 nm radius. The effects of magnetic material and coating thickness on the MFM resolution and the switching field are investigated. MFM resolutions better than 8 nm have been confirmed with tips coated with soft magnetic or hard magnetic materials with optimized thicknesses. The switching field varies in a wide range 0.1-3.0 kOe depending on the coating material and the coating thickness (10-80 nm). High-resolution MFM tips are applied to the observations of magnetization structures of perpendicular and bit-patterned media samples. Magnetization structures of less than 20 nm in scale are clearly observed.

Keywords

magnetic force microscopy; magnetic switching; magnetic thin films; permanent magnets; perpendicular magnetic recording; soft magnetic materials; Si; bit-patterned media; coating material; coating thickness effect; hard magnetic material; high-density recording media; high-resolution magnetic force microscope tips; magnetic force microscope resolution improvement; magnetic material effect; magnetization structures; nonmagnetic Si tips; optimized thicknesses; perpendicular media; size 10 nm to 80 nm; size 4 nm; soft magnetic material; switching field; Magnetic force microscope; magnetic material coating; spatial resolution; switching field; tip preparation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2013.2251868

Filename

6522203