LASER INVESTIGATIONS OF SURFACE-ROUGHNESS OF COBALT SINGLE-CRYSTAL AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE MAGNETIC DOMAIN IMAGE OBSERVED IN SEM

In this paper, the influence of the roughness on a surface perpendicul ar to the axis c of a cobalt single crystal on the quality of magnetic domain image recorded with the aid of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) is examined. The basic parameter of the surface roughness, i.e. the r.m.s. deviation of the profile sigma was determined based on opti cal reflexometric method (He-Ne laser). From the results obtained, it can be seen that in order to diminish significantly the topographic co ntrast in other words, to improve the quality of the magnetic domains image, the examined surface should be prepared in such a way that its r.m.s. profile deviation sigma be not less than 0.19 mu m.