INVESTIGATION OF THE DOMAIN CONTRAST IN MAGNETIC FORCE MICROSCOPY

Citation
L. Belliard et al., INVESTIGATION OF THE DOMAIN CONTRAST IN MAGNETIC FORCE MICROSCOPY, Journal of applied physics, 81(8), 1997, pp. 3849-3851
Citations number
7
Categorie Soggetti
Physics, Applied
Journal title
ISSN journal
00218979
Volume
81
Issue
8
Year of publication
1997
Part
2A
Pages
3849 - 3851
Database
ISI
SICI code
0021-8979(1997)81:8<3849:IOTDCI>2.0.ZU;2-E
Abstract
Domains were imaged by magnetic force microscopy (MFM) on materials wh ere the domain size exceeds the sample thickness by three orders of ma gnitude. Selected samples are a magnetooptical medium and ultrathin co balt films, all with perpendicular magnetization. A strong domain cont rast is observed in both cases. This fact is confronted to the usual t heory of MFM image formation, in which the stray field from one body ( tip or sample) is sensed by the other, without altering of the magneti zation distributions. It is shown that the domain contrast in such ext reme conditions cannot be explained with that theory. On the contrary, Abraham and McDonald's model, which considers the response of the sam ple to the tip field, is quantitatively compared to experiment. It is shown to provide a good qualitative description of the results, but no t a quantitative one, because of oversimplification. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.