Fabrication of submicron-scale manganese–nickel tips for spin-polarized STM studies

STM tips of magnetic materials have been fabricated and characterized with the intention of creating an effective probe for the development of a spin-polarized STM technique. The probe material is an ordered equiatomic MnNi alloy which is an antiferromagnet with a high Ne´el temperature of 1140 K. The method of fabricating the tips is described in detail. Suitability of the tips to work as STM probes for atomic resolution imaging was tested on W 100. surface. 3=1. reconstruction was imaged in this way. We found that these tips of MnNi can operate at least as well as conventional tips made out of tungsten. q1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved