Calibration of magnetic force microscopy tips by using nanoscale current-carrying parallel wires

Experimental results on the characterization of commercially available magnetic force microscopy (MFM) thin film tips as a function of an external magnetic field are presented. Magnetic stray fields with a definitive z-component (perpendicular to the substrate) and a magnetic field strength of up to H-z=+/-45 Oe are produced with current carrying parallel nanowires with a thickness of t=60 nm, which are fabricated by electron-beam lithography. The magnetic fields are generated by electrical dc-currents of up to +/-6 mA which are directed antiparallel through the nanowires. The geometry and the dimensions of the nanowires are systematically varied by choosing different wire widths w as well as separations b between the parallel wires for two different sets of samples. On the one hand, the wire width w is varied within 380 nm<w<2460 nm while the separation bapproximate to450 nm between the wires is kept constant. On the other hand the separation b between the parallel wires is varied within 120 nm<b<5100 nm, while the wire width w=960 nm is kept constant. For all the geometrical configurations of parallel wires the resulting magnetic contrast is imaged by MFM at various tip lift-heights. By treating the MFM tip as a point probe, the analysis of the image contrast as a function of both the magnetic field strength and the tip lift height allows one to quantitatively determine the effective magnetic dipole and monopole moments of the tip as well as their imaginary locations within the real physical tip. Our systematic study quantitatively relates the above point-probe parameters to (i) the dimensions of the parallel wires and (ii) to the characteristic decay length of the z-component of the magnetic field of parallel wires. From this the effective tip-volume of the real thin film tip is determined which is relevant in MFM-imaging. Our results confirm the reliability of earlier tip calibration schemes for which nanofabricated current carrying rings were used instead of parallel wires, thereby proving that the tip calibration equations depend on the underlying stray field geometry. Finally, we propose an experimental approach which allows one to measure the magnetization of nanoscale ferromagnetic elements with an in-plane orientation of the magnetization, quantitatively, by using a calibrated MFM-tip. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.