COMPARING THE RESOLUTION OF MAGNETIC FORCE MICROSCOPES USING THE CAMST REFERENCE SAMPLES

A set of reference samples for comparing the results obtained with dif ferent magnetic force microscopes (MFM) has been prepared. These sampl es consist of CoNi/Pt magneto-optic multilayers with different thickne sses. The magnetic properties of the multilayer are tailored in such a way that a very fine stripe domain structure occurs in remanence. On top of this intrinsic domain structure, bits were written thermomagnet ically using different laser powers. These samples have been imaged in six different laboratories employing both home-built and commercial m agnetic force microscopes, The resolution obtained with these differen t microscopes, tips and measurement methods varies between 30 and 100 nm. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.