LATERAL RESOLUTION IN MAGNETIC FORCE MICROSCOPY - APPLICATION TO PERIODIC STRUCTURES

Describing the field and the field gradient above a magnetic stripe structure, we calculate the highest lateral resolution achievable in MFM. On the basis of a newly established model of a tip - truncated cone with an elliptic cross-section - we found that an infinitesimal tip is the best one. That was intuitively obvious. This tip however is difficult to prepare and the force acting on such a tip is undetectable at the moment. Therefore, we propose a narrow stripe of thin film as a tip. We found that lateral resolution in this case is comparable to the very small tip case but the force measured in MFM should reach more than 10-10 N. © 1990.