Theoretical and experimental study of synthetic MFM tips

Abstract

One of the extensively investigated issues for magnetic force microscopy is its low resolution as compared to other scanning probe techniques such as atomic force microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy. This is mainly caused by the fact that the magnetically responsive coating covers the entire body of the tip as well as the relatively large sample-tip spacing. Recently, we have developed a new type of tip which effectively has a magnetic coating only at the tip apex and at the same time can be used at a smaller sample-tip distance due to its low moment. In this paper, the superior performance of the new tip is studied theoretically using an analytical model. The analytical results are supported by the experimental data.