A Novel Method for Time-resolved Characterization of Micromagnetic Stray Fields with Scanning Probe Microscopy

Abstract

Scanning probe microscopy is opening new applications in magnetic engineering due to superior resolution limits without any sample preparation under ambient conditions. In this paper we report time‐resolved magnetic stray field measurements based on a new type of probe to characterize magnetic fields. The probe used was a magneto‐resistive probe head fastened to a scanning probe microscope. The characteristics of the novel method are checked out on different test structures. In our experimental set‐up we have shown the ability of the novel method to characterize time‐dependent magnetic stray fields with micrometre spatial resolution and microtesla magnetic field resolution with kilohertz bandwidth. The experimental results reported are waveform measurements on distinct testpoints (zero‐dimensional), linescans (one‐dimensional) and two‐dimensional stray field distributions. Applications in three‐dimensional measurements are discussed.© 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.