NOISE-ANALYSIS AND IMAGE FOCUSING FOR MAGNETIC FORCE MICROSCOPY

Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) has been widely utilized to reveal magnetization distributions by sensing the external magnetic-field distribution very close to the sample. The resolution of MFM is determined by the size of the sensor tip and by the spacing between the tip and the measured sample. A technique is developed to analyze the noise and linearity of a MFM image, and consequently to improve the spatial resolution by reducing the spacing loss. As a demonstration, a series of MFM images of a single permalloy particle is obtained and numerically analyzed. The spacing loss is reduced and a much higher resolution image is obtained.